Over 700,000 students hit as lecturers strike paralyses universities
Education
By
Lewis Nyaundi
| Oct 03, 2026
More than 700,000 university students have been thrown into uncertainty after lecturers in public universities downed their tools on Friday, bringing teaching and learning to a halt and raising the prospect of disruptions to the academic calendar.
Students, who have been in universities for only about a month, were forced to abandon their studies as lecturers stayed away from classrooms.
The strike brings learning to a halt for a student population of more than 700,000 across the university sector, while putting the spotlight on the working conditions and financing of academic staff.
Interviews with students across different universities showed growing uncertainty over how long they will remain away from classrooms and what the disruption will mean for their academic programmes.
“We have just reported for the new academic year, the strike threatens to wipe out teaching time,” a student at Multimedia University of Kenya said.
The disruption by nearly 10,000 lecturers is likely to create a backlog that universities will have to address once the strike ends.
The institutions could be forced to review their academic calendars, with lectures potentially extending beyond the scheduled semester, examinations being pushed forward and subsequent academic sessions being affected.
Thousands of students who live in university hostels may also be forced to evacuate if the strike is prolonged.
UASU Secretary-General Dr Constantine Wasonga said lecturers had commenced the nationwide strike after the union exhausted avenues for negotiations over the 2025–2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement.
In a statement issued on Friday, the union said academic staff had officially commenced a nationwide strike in all Kenya’s public universities.
The union said the dispute followed the failure to conclude the 2025–2029 CBA despite a Return-to-Work Formula signed with the Inter-Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum on November 5, 2025.
Under the agreement, the parties had committed to concluding the CBA before the end of 2025.
“That commitment has not been honoured,” Wasonga said.
UASU says the Government has failed to table what it considers a meaningful financial counter-proposal for the new CBA, making it impossible to conclude negotiations on the financial provisions.
The dispute has also widened to the funding of public universities and, specifically, the proposed Student-Centred University Funding Model.
According to UASU, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission informed the Inter-Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum on September 18 that the CBA would be funded through the student-centred model, with funding linked to the number of students admitted to individual universities.
The union says the Government had not remitted more than Sh100 billion owed to public universities under the model.
It also rejected a financial counter-proposal presented on October 1, describing it as “woefully inadequate” and saying some of its proposals were below the rates currently applicable to academic staff.
UASU is demanding that the 2025–2029 CBA be negotiated, signed, registered and implemented, while also seeking a commitment from the Ministry of Education and the National Treasury that the agreement and academic staff salaries will be funded from the National Exchequer.
Similarly, the union is opposed to the Government’s new funding model, arguing that it links lecturers’ salaries to student-related income.
“Academic staff salaries must not be tied to student fees,” Wasonga said.
Wasonga questioned the sustainability of such an arrangement, asking what would happen to academic staff salaries when students were unable to pay fees, student numbers declined or funds under the student-centred funding model were not remitted to universities.
UASU insists that academic staff in public universities are public officers whose salaries should be provided by the National Exchequer.
The union has said the strike will continue until the 2025–2029 CBA is negotiated, signed, registered and implemented, the Government commits to funding it through the National Exchequer, and agreed human-resource provisions are incorporated into the instruments governing public universities.
At Egerton University, union representatives accused the Government of delaying CBA negotiations for 14 months and failing to honour signed agreements.
UASU National Deputy Secretary-General Grace Kibue noted that higher education is not a devolved public function and therefore requires stable, centralised State funding.
“All salaries of public university employees should be paid through the exchequer because university education is not a devolved function and it is a national public good that must be funded from the national kitty,” Kibue said.
“There will be no teaching in universities until such a time when our demands are met,” she said.
The nationwide shutdown follows Thursday’s breakdown of conciliatory talks held at Machakos University between union negotiators and representatives of the Inter-Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum (IPUCCF).
At Maseno University, striking university dons maintained that they would not resume lectures until their demands were met. They sang and danced at the institution’s graduation square as they blamed what they described as a lack of commitment from the Government to address their concerns.
The staff also raised concerns over university funding and changes to negotiated human-resource instruments.
The unions, representing academic and non-academic staff, said the strike would continue until the Government addressed their demands and implemented the 2025–2029 CBA in full.
At Technical University of Mombasa (TUM), workers’ unions faulted authorities for dragging their feet in implementing their concerns.
UASU TUM chapter representative Professor Ochieng Odalo said the Government had failed to honour a commitment made last year to negotiate, sign, register and implement the agreement.
“We are on strike for mainly three issues,” Odalo said, accusing the Government of failing to meet an agreed 30-day window for negotiations.
He also objected to proposals that could see public university employees’ salaries funded through fees paid by students.
“We are public officers,” Odalo said, arguing that university staff should be paid from government funds rather than student fees.
The union official also criticised the proposed Higher Education Placement and Funding Bill, saying the legislation should provide a clear mechanism for funding university operations and staff remuneration through government allocations.
The unions further raised concerns over human-resource instruments that they said had been altered after negotiations between staff representatives and university management.
Odalo said the documents should be reopened for negotiations and agreed upon by all parties before being submitted to the Public Service Commission.
Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU) TUM chapter deputy secretary Mr Ichingwa Justus said the dispute over the 2025–2029 CBA had persisted despite assurances made during a previous strike.
KUSU deputy treasurer, TUM chapter, Ms Ritah Mong’ina, said the unions would not back down from the strike until all the demands were met.
“KUSU, UASU, and KUDHEIHA have given out their reasons, and those reasons should be heard,” Mong’ina said, calling on the Government to address each union’s demands.
KUDHEIHA representative Mr Joseph Musyoka said the union had issued a strike notice but that the Government had failed to respond to its concerns.
The strike comes amid continuing tensions over funding, remuneration and collective bargaining in Kenya’s public universities.
The union officials said staff would remain off duty until their grievances were addressed.
At Tom Mboya University in Homa Bay County, the University Academic Staff Union (UASU) warned part-time lecturers against sabotaging their strike by teaching students.
UASU Secretary-General in charge of the Tom Mboya University Chapter, Maurice Ndolo, said they would paralyse learning in the universities until their grievances were addressed.
But his concern was that previous strikes had been sabotaged by part-time lecturers. He said they would not allow any part-time lecturer to go to class during the strike.
“Part-time lecturers have been impeding previous strikes in universities. We are warning them against any arrangement that can jeopardise this strike. In fact, keep of Tom Mboya University,” Dr Ndolo said.
He argued that the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) they were fighting for would benefit part-time lecturers.
Dr Ndolo argued that part-time lecturers would be the final beneficiaries who would enjoy the proceeds of the strike for many years.
“Let no part-time lecturer come from our neighbouring universities for any arrangement that can undermine the strike,” Dr Ndolo said.
In the Mount Kenya region, staff at Chuka University and Tharaka University, both in Tharaka-Nithi County, have joined their counterparts in other Kenyan institutions in a nationwide strike.
At Chuka, University Academic Staff Union (UASU) members were flanked by members of Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU) and Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers (KUDHEA) in condemning the national Government for oppressing them and denying them their rights.
They absolved the university management and heaped the blame on the national Government for failing to implement the 2025–2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), and vowed to sustain the industrial action until their demands were met.
They also committed to defy any court order, insisting they had followed the right legal process before kicking off the strike.
Dr Alice Mulama, the UASU branch secretary, said they must be treated fairly like other public servants, vowing they would stay put until the national Government relented and implemented the CBA.
“We are very unhappy as the academic staff because of the way we are always handled by this government,” Dr Mulama said.
They lamented that the engagement with the Inter-Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum (IPUCCF) had borne no fruit, saying nothing less than implementation of the CBA would make them resume work.
“We cannot have people coming on the (negotiation) table and they show a lot of arrogance to us. They don't give any notice, and when we give notice to go on strike, they come with a court order. We are not going to obey that court order,” she said.
Mulama added: “The strike is legal because we followed the correct process and we followed the law. We are not obeying the court order because we have seen even the politicians do not obey any court order.”
She dismissed the idea of universities funding their respective CBAs, saying it was up to the Exchequer to pay their monies.
“We are not on strike because of Chuka University management. We are on strike because of the national government and we will remain on strike until they respond positively,” Mulama stated.
At Murang'a University, members of UASU, led by Dr Stephen Njenga, accused the Government of taking them for granted despite the earlier promise.
“At MUT, nothing is happening; all the lecturers are out of the lecture rooms following the strike notice that was issued after the government failed to honour the CBA, despite the earlier agreement,” said Dr Njenga.
The lecturers said they would proceed with the strike after the Government failed to sign the CBA, exposing them to suffering, with the majority unable to provide for their families.