Teachers’ strike in Kenya affects over 700,000 students — Nation Kenya
In Kenya, a strike by lecturers at public universities, now in its second week, has disrupted studies for more than 700,000 students. Negotiations between the authorities and the union have collapsed, and the lecturers said they would not return to work until the dispute is resolved, Nation Kenya reports.
Students are losing study time and fear that their living funds will not last until classes resume. Some must choose between staying in dormitories without lectures and incurring additional expenses to travel home. The situation has been particularly difficult for first-year students, who began the academic year only a few weeks ago.
Dispute over the collective agreement
University Academic Staff Union (Uasu) Secretary-General Constantine Wasonga said the government had not demonstrated sufficient willingness to negotiate. According to him, the 12 billion Kenyan shillings package proposed by the authorities does not cover obligations under the collective agreement for 2025–2029.
Wasonga noted that the value of the agreement for 2013–2017 was 15 billion shillings, for 2017–2021 it was 16.5 billion, while the agreement for 2022–2025 provided for 9 billion shillings for basic salaries and automatic annual increases. The union demands that the government’s offer be calculated using a transparent, evidence-based methodology.
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Student costs and the risk of changes to the calendar
Representatives of student associations urged Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migosi Ogamba to speed up negotiations with Uasu. They point to additional costs for families, uncertainty over the academic calendar, and psychological pressure on students.
Remmy Osoti, a fourth-year student at Multimedia University, said that travelling home and returning after the strike ends costs him about 5,000 shillings. At the Technical University of Mombasa and other institutions, some students have already left for rural areas because classes have been suspended.
Professor Daniel Mugendi, chairman of the committee of vice-chancellors of public universities, warned that not all academic programmes will be able to make up for lost time after studies resume. According to him, this particularly concerns fields such as medicine, where learning modules follow one another sequentially.
