Employers should consider StrikeAge when recruiting fresh graduates

Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology lecturers protest at the institution during the ongoing nationwide strike, on September 17, 2025. [Benjamin Sakwa Standard]

"Strike Age" reframes employability in a way the system never has. At its core, it speaks to a question of fairness: should graduates be penalised for time lost in a system they do not control? In Kenya, where university education is frequently disrupted by lecturers' strikes and institutional instability, the answer is increasingly difficult to justify.

In a perfect world, a Kenyan student would enroll in university and graduate four years later at age 22 or 23. However, that predictability has been shattered. Industrial action has become a permanent fixture of the higher education landscape. In 2025 alone, a prolonged 49-day strike paralyzed public universities, pushing graduation dates back by months and, in some cases, years.