KUSU announced its strike notice at a meeting at Tom Mboya Labour College in Kisumu.
KUSU has issued a seven-day strike notice over stalled pay negotiations, raising the prospect of disruption to teaching and support services at public universities.
Non-teaching staff at public universities have joined lecturers in threatening nationwide industrial action from October 2, escalating a dispute over stalled negotiations for the 2025–2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
The Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU) issued a seven-day strike notice during a Friday meeting at Tom Mboya Labour College in Kisumu. The announcement followed a similar notice from the Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) a day earlier.
The parallel notices put teaching, administration and other university services at risk if employers and government agencies fail to resolve the two unions’ disputes before the proposed walkout.
KUSU demands conclusion of pay agreement
KUSU, which represents non-teaching university employees, said delays in concluding and registering its CBA had prompted the strike notice. It blamed public university employers and government agencies for the impasse and urged the Ministry of Education and the National Treasury to intervene.
The union is demanding that the government return to negotiations and conclude the agreement within seven days. Its officials and delegates from public universities met in Kisumu to prepare and mobilise members for the proposed October 2 industrial action.
KUSU Secretary-General Dr Charles Mukhwaya said workers were facing growing financial strain from inflation, rising living costs and high fuel prices. He argued that an agreement was needed to cushion staff against those pressures.
Mukhwaya also questioned why university employees were still waiting while their counterparts elsewhere in the public service had already secured agreements. He said other public sector workers had negotiated, concluded, registered and implemented their 2025–2029 CBAs as early as July 1, 2025.
Lecturers cite missing financial counter-proposal
UASU has said its strike will begin at midnight on October 2. The lecturers’ union accused university councils, the Ministry of Education and the National Treasury of failing to honour a previously signed Return-to-Work Formula.
It also said the government had not presented a financial counter-proposal for the 2025–2029 CBA, leaving the pay negotiations unresolved.
The funding question remains central to the dispute. On September 21, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) disclosed that neither the Ministry of Education nor the National Treasury had given a written commitment that public university CBAs would be funded through the National Exchequer.
UASU subsequently said the lack of that commitment prevented SRC from issuing the constitutional advice needed to facilitate financial counter-proposals.
Unions warn of disruption across universities
The lecturers’ union has also rejected any shift towards financing academic staff remuneration through student fees or other market-based funding. It maintains that lecturers in public universities are public officers.
For KUSU, the prolonged negotiations have intensified frustration among non-teaching workers. Mukhwaya characterised the strike notice as a step forced on the union by the government’s handling of the dispute, rather than its preferred course.
Both unions are now preparing for industrial action on the same date. Unless the outstanding issues are resolved, public universities could face simultaneous interruptions to academic programmes and the administrative and support services that keep institutions running.
