It’s a dog’s life for part-time lecturers slaving with no pay

Maseno University students demonstrate at the institution on February 1, 2017. (File, Standard)

They give body, soul and spirit into unwaged or underpaid labour, hazardously juggling a dawn to dusk teaching schedule. The knock on my office door was feeble. It was late, and well past normal working hours. But the near thankless remit of a head of department is a self-sacrificing vocation. It is a community service.

He opened the door. He had a boyish, youngish mien but looked 50. In our younger, care-free days we would call him kijana-mzee. He ambled slowly toward the empty chair across my desk, caressing its backrest slightly, unsure of whether to sit or stay rooted beside it.