Relief for university students as staff sign return-to-work deal
Education
By
Lewis Nyaundi
| Nov 06, 2025
University students will from today troop back to classes counting losses after missing lessons for 49 days.
Lecturers and the non-academic workers at the public universities yesterday called of their strike after a protracted battle with the government.
The staff settled for a two-phased payment plan that they had rejected last week.
University Academic Staff Union Union (Uasu) Secretary General Constantine Wasonga announced that they had settled for Sh3.85 billion for the first phase payable by December 31.
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A similar amount would be paid seven months later in July next year.
The breakthrough came after Uasu, the Kenya University Staff Union (Kusu), the Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers (Kudheiha). and the Inter-Public Universities Councils’ Consultative Forum (IPUCCF) signed a return-to-work formula.
“We are not leaving this industrial action with all that we wanted, which was immediate full implementation payment of Sh7.9 billion. Yet, we consider the firm commitment by the National Treasury and Parliament; and balanced against the interests of more than 600,000 students, and the survival of the higher education sector in this country; Uasu has made concessions and hereby calls off the strike,” said Dr Wasonga.
Last week, the three unions rejected the deal after a meeting with Deputy President Kithure Kindiki.
On Tuesday, MPs intervened, urging the unions to reconsider the deal after Treasury CS John Mbadi insisted that it was the best the government would offer.
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba promised the students that the time lost would be recovered.
“The universities have indicated that they will re-look at the calendar and ensure that the time lost has been recovered,” he said.
The unions members downed their tools on September 17, paralysing operations in all public universities and their constituent colleges.
Vice Chancellors Committee Chairman Daniel Mugendi told Parliament that the students had lost half the semester.
In the deal, the staff have committed to working with university management on a practical programme to recover the seven weeks of lost teaching time.
“The full duration of the industrial action, where applicable, shall be factored in to safeguard and maintain the quality of university education,” the agreement says.
The CS also promised no one would be victimised for participating in the strike.
“Uasu unionisable employees… shall not be victimised for withdrawing their labour by participating in the industrial action nor shall there be losses of jobs nor loss of benefits,” reads the agreement.
It further orders the unconditional reinstatement of any staff whose contracts had been terminated because of the strike.
All disciplinary actions, including show-cause letters, interdictions or suspensions, are to be withdrawn and expunged from employee records.
At the same time, staff would not lose any pay for the strike period. The agreement stipulates that all withheld salaries and benefits for September and October must be paid by Monday.
Salaries for the first five days of November are also protected.
A National Implementation Committee would oversee the distribution of the funds and the remittance of the employer pension component.
The agreement further states that tax on the salary arrears would be computed according to the income tax rates that were prevailing in the financial years when the money was earned.
On the negotiation for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the parties agreed to fast-track talks for the 2025-2029 cycle within 30 days.
Pending union dues and agency fees would be recovered at a rate of two per cent directly from the 2017-2021 CBA arrears.