Lecturers set to down tools

University lecturers' strike is set for Wednesday after the dons snubbed talks with Higher Education minister Margaret Kamar to negotiate their salaries.

The lecturers, backed by their non-teaching staff, said Prof Kamar took their strike threat “too casually” and did not have any substantial offers for them.

Speaking in Nairobi on Tuesday, union officials said talks will only start when representatives from the Treasury and Attorney General’s office is composed.

“We refused that invitation because it is based on bad faith,” Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) secretary general Muga K’olale told journalists.

He was accompanied by top officials of the Universities Non-Teaching Staff Union and Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Education Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers.

At a Monday meeting chaired by Prof Sammy Kubasu, the lecturers said that the government can only “listen better” to them when they are out of class.

Addressing 23 National Executive Council meeting officials at their headquarters in Nairobi, Prof Kubasu said they needed salaries for their members to be harmonised with those of other government entities like the Central Bank of Kenya.

“We can only call off the strike after our demands have been met by the government,” Prof Kubasu said.

He said the government shelved negotiations for the 2010/2012 collective bargaining agreement for their salaries two years ago, forcing them to call the strike.

The deal could have seen them get a pay raise of between 30 and 40 percent.