By Valentine Omondi
Lecturers in Kenya’s public universities have issued a seven-day strike notice, setting the stage for another disruption of learning over the stalled 2025 to 2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
The Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) announced on Thursday, September 24, 2026, that its members would down their tools from midnight on Friday, October 2, if the government fails to resolve the outstanding issues surrounding the agreement.
UASU Secretary-General Constantine Wasonga said the decision followed the failure by university councils, the Ministry of Education and the National Treasury to provide the financial commitment required to move negotiations on the new CBA forward.
The union’s latest action comes less than a year after lecturers ended a 49-day nationwide strike following a return-to-work agreement with the government on November 5, 2025.
What lecturers are demanding
At the centre of the current dispute is the 2025 to 2029 CBA, which UASU says has remained unresolved despite commitments made when the previous strike was called off.
The union wants the agreement negotiated, signed, registered and implemented, together with a firm government commitment that its financial obligations will be funded through the National Exchequer.
UASU says the Salaries and Remuneration Commission informed university sector unions on September 21, 2026, that neither the Ministry of Education nor the National Treasury had provided a written commitment on funding the CBA through the National Exchequer.
Wasonga said the lack of that commitment had affected the negotiations because the SRC could not provide the financial parameters required for the process.
“National CBAs cannot be funded by individual universities. National CBA is supposed to be funded from the national exchequer,” Wasonga said.
The union has also opposed any arrangement that would make public universities rely on student fees to meet lecturers’ salaries and CBA obligations.
UASU further wants the proposed Tertiary Education Placement and Funding Bill, 2026, to safeguard the remuneration of academic staff through Exchequer funding. It has also raised concerns over staffing shortages, excessive workloads, the use of part-time lecturers and retirement age provisions.
The 2025 strike and return-to-work agreement
The current dispute follows a lengthy strike that began on September 17, 2025.
Lecturers in public universities walked out after UASU accused the government of failing to settle outstanding financial obligations and begin negotiations for the new 2025 to 2029 CBA.
When the strike began, UASU demanded payment of Sh2.73 billion, settlement of what it said were outstanding arrears from the 2017 to 2021 CBA and negotiations for the 2025 to 2029 agreement.
The arrears issue was contested by the government side. A National Assembly record later stated that while unions claimed Sh7.9 billion remained outstanding from the 2017 to 2021 CBA, SRC maintained that Sh7.2 billion of that amount had already been paid through regular annual salary increments, leaving a balance of Sh624 million, according to its interpretation. The parliamentary record also stated that the 2021 to 2025 CBA had substantially been implemented.
After 49 days of industrial action, the unions and the Ministry of Education reached a return-to-work agreement on November 5, 2025.
Under the agreement, the government committed to paying Sh7.9 billion in arrears in two phases, with Sh3.8 billion scheduled for payment between November and December 2025 and the balance to be offset by July 2026.
The parties also agreed to conclude negotiations on the 2025 to 2029 CBA within 30 days. Lecturers subsequently returned to work.
The agreement was expected to end the immediate dispute and pave the way for negotiations on the new five-year CBA.
However, the agreement has not produced the conclusion of the new CBA, leaving the two sides facing another confrontation less than a year later.
Fresh ultimatum before the strike notice
The latest escalation began on September 18, 2026, when UASU gave the government and the Inter-Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum one month to negotiate, sign, register and implement the 2025 to 2029 CBA.
Wasonga said the union would issue a seven-day strike notice if the agreement was not concluded within the period.
The union said negotiations had stalled partly because it had not received what it considered a substantive financial counter-proposal from the government side.
The September 18 ultimatum therefore became the final opportunity for the parties to resolve the dispute without another industrial action.
That deadline has now been overtaken by the seven-day strike notice issued on September 24.
Unless the outstanding issues are resolved within the notice period, lecturers in public universities are expected to begin the strike at midnight on October 2, 2026.
