Universities face disruption as UASU announce nationwide strike beginning September 30

Lecturers in all public universities are set to down their tools starting September 30 after the Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) issued a seven-day nationwide strike notice.

UASU Secretary-General Constantine Wasonga on Thursday, September 24, said the strike would begin at midnight on Friday, September 30, over the government’s failure to implement the 2025-2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

The union said the strike followed university councils, the Ministry of Education and the Treasury’s failure to honour the Return-to-Work Formula signed on November 5, 2025.

According to UASU, the government has also failed to provide a financial counter-proposal for the 2025-2029 CBA despite negotiations having continued since last year.

The union noted that other employees in the public sector had concluded their 2025-2029 CBAs, while the agreement for lecturers in public universities remained unresolved.

“This painful decision follows the persistent failure by the councils of universities, the Ministry of Education, and the National Treasury to honour the Return-to-Work Formula signed on 5th November 2025,” UASU stated.

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The union further noted the latest development following a meeting with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) on Monday, September 21, 2026.

According to UASU, SRC informed university-sector unions that neither the Ministry of Education nor the National Treasury had provided a written commitment that funding for public universities’ CBAs would be provided through the National Exchequer.

“SRC said that it could not therefore issue the constitutional advice required to facilitate financial counter-proposals to the Unions,” UASU stated.

The union argued that the disclosure by the remuneration commission raised questions about the negotiations that have been taking place at Machakos University since last year. 

The planned strike comes just over a month after UASU warned that lecturers could go on strike if the government failed to implement the agreement covering the period between 2025 and 2029.

In a statement issued on August 14, the union said the 2025-2029 CBA was expected to be signed in November 2025 but had remained pending.

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