Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) boss Muga K’Olale has insisted that the lecturers’ strike will go on and that it will go a notch higher from next week when there will be demonstrations in Nairobi and in other places in the country. Addressing the press in Nairobi, the UASU chair said the government hasn’t complied with the signed agreement they had earlier in the year, “We negotiated a CBA in June 2017 and we mutually signed and registered it in employment relations court for implementation,” he affirmed.
He said even though parliament awarded a given package to cater for their needs, the money hasn’t been accounted for, “The parliament did award universities Kshs 5.2 billion to cater for the said CBA but up to now nobody has made full disclosure about the money,” he said, “We expect someone from the government and universities to make full disclosure so that learning can resume.” Contrary to perceptions by some people, K’Olale said the strike is not politically fueled, saying UASU has been in existence before both Jubilee and NASA were formed. However, he urged the government to be accountable and work with the treasury to ensure learning resumes.
On his part, UASU Secretary General Constantine Wasonga castigated the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) for not following the right procedures calling for negotiations. “Of late, the SRC has been writing letters to universities to negotiate non-financial items. We cannot negotiate non-financial items because it means we will negotiate zero CBAs,” he said. He insisted the Union isn’t ready to negotiate zero CBAs and even listed the Universities which have received the SRC counsel, including Laikipia University, Masinde Muliro University, Moi University among others. The strike which started on Wednesday, 1st November, entered its third day on Friday.
