Nationwide Campus Shutdown Looms as UASU Issues Seven-Day Strike Notice

  Public university academic operations face complete paralysis after the Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) issued a seven-day nationwide strike notice today, September 24, 2026. Lecturers in public institutions across the country are set to down their tools starting at midnight on Friday, October 2, 2026.  

      

Secretary General of UASU Dr. Constantine Wasonga

   

  The union stated that the industrial action stems from the persistent failure of university councils, the Ministry of Education, and the National Treasury to honour the Return-to-Work Formula signed on November 5, 2025. Lecturers expressed outrage over the government’s failure to present a financial counter-proposal for the 2025–2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), leaving academic staff stranded while other public education sectors concluded their CBAs last year.  

      A major catalyst for the strike notice was a disclosure made by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) during a meeting on Monday, September 21, 2026. The SRC informed university unions that neither the Ministry of Education nor the National Treasury had submitted a formal written commitment securing National Exchequer funding for the CBA. Lacking this written guarantee under the hand of the Principal Secretary to the Treasury, the SRC stated it cannot issue the required constitutional advice to advance financial counter-proposals.  

  "This disclosure by SRC confirms that the negotiations held at Machakos University since last year have been an exercise in futility," UASU stated in the release.  

       The union also strongly rejected indications that the government plans to fund lecturer salaries through student fees and market-based mechanisms under a new university funding framework. UASU characterized this move as a back-door attempt to strip academic staff of their status as public officers. Pointing to constitutional definitions, the union asserted that academic staff are public officers whose remuneration must be guaranteed directly by Parliament through the Consolidated Fund.  

          UASU criticized senior government officials for relying on informal policy pronouncements—including social media posts by Economic Advisor Dr. David Ndii—to communicate major structural shifts in higher education funding. The union emphasized that labor unions cannot be expected to navigate social media declarations or decipher the un-enacted Tertiary Education Placement and Funding Bill, 2026.  

          To avert the planned industrial action, UASU outlined five core demands:

1.CBA Implementation: Immediate negotiation, signing, registration, and implementation of the 2025–2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement.  

2.Exchequer Commitment: A written financial commitment from the Ministry of Education and National Treasury confirming Exchequer funding for the CBA.  

3.Protection of Public Officer Status: An end to all policy attempts aimed at reclassifying public university lecturers away from public officer status.  

4.Legislative Safeguards: Explicit statutory provisions inserted into the Tertiary Education Placement and Funding Bill, 2026, protecting lecturer remuneration via the Exchequer.  

5.PSC Participation: Meaningful involvement of UASU in developing new university human resource frameworks under the Public Service Commission.  

   Speaking on behalf of the union, UASU Secretary General Dr. Constantine Wasonga warned that the government's continued negligence threatens the quality of university education and the stability of Kenya’s socio-economic development. Unless state authorities resolve the impasse before October 2, learning activities across all public university campuses nationwide will come to a halt.