More varsities set to close as strike enters sixth day

The strike by lecturers in public universities enters its sixth day Monday with a possibility of more institutions shutting down.

At the weekend, students at Chepkoilel University College in Eldoret were sent home indefinitely.

The constituent college of Moi University followed Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology in Kakamega and Egerton University in Nakuru in shutting down after lecturers and non-teaching staff downed their tools to demand increased salaries.

Masinde Muliro and Egerton universities closed down on Friday following the strike that started on Wednesday.

Chepkoilel University College principal Elijah Biamah said the board decided to “close the institution and monitor the situation” on realising that the strike would drag on.

This comes even as the government said it had no money to meet the lecturers’ demands.

On Sunday, Higher Education Minister Margaret Kamar said the government had redirected its resources to the war in Somalia.

While she admitted that the lecturers had valid grievances, Prof Kamar said the current situation could not allow for increments on their allowances and salaries.

Amicable solution

“We urge the university lecturers to consider having dialogue with the government to reach an amicable solution,” she said at Koibarak Primary School in her Eldoret East constituency.

With the closures, the fate of this semester’s examinations and the graduation ceremonies that were to be held between this and next month is in the balance.

The larger Moi University was yet to send its students home.

On Sunday, students seemed optimistic that a solution would be found today to pave way for resumption of normal programmes.

Universities were said to be using casual employees to discharge essential services. Administrative personnel and non-teaching staff have joined the pay strike.

Before closure, Chepkoilel’s Prof Biamah confirmed that the college had contracted casual staff to provide cleaning services and do clerical work.

At the University of Nairobi, the cafeteria remained closed and students could only buy their food from outside the college.

At Nairobi university’s College of Education campus in Kikuyu, students told the Nation that their time for library studies had now been reduced after the institution hired casual librarians.

“The library is now closing at 7pm instead of 10pm. It means that we cannot have enough time to study,” said the college students’ association chairman Peter Siro.

The students were preparing for their exams scheduled for early next month.

“I just hope a quick solution is found because we don’t want to stay here longer than we should,” a student at the college, Mr Ben Wekesa, said.

Besides idling, the students complained that they were incurring extra costs buying food.

At Moi University, students were concerned that the management had allowed examinations to continue in some campuses yet they usually sit similar papers.

Some said they would mobilise their colleagues to decline special examinations for those papers that have been administered in other campuses.

The institution usually sets similar examinations for all its students spread over various campuses countrywide and the examinations are usually done at the same time to avoid irregularities.

The secretary-general of the Universities Academic Staff Union Moi University Chapter, Dr Osumba Ogeta, said students who sit special examinations would be at a disadvantage.

Dr Ogeta said it would also be difficult for lecturers to mark examinations because they don’t understand how they were done.

But students at Kenyatta University said they would refuse to go home should the institution close down.

The Kenyatta University Students Association president Anthony Akoto said they should be allowed to do their exams and finish the semester without interruption.

“We support the review of lecturers’ salaries, but are against the strike as it is causing us unnecessary inconveniences,” Mr Akoto said.

Reports also emerged that the universities were trying to woo their respective union chapters to have local negotiations and end the strike.

The Maseno University vice-chancellor, Prof Dominic Makawiti, told the Nation that his staff had agreed to go back to class and administer exams, after which they would resume talks.

He said the resolution had arisen from discussions they held on Friday.

Call off strike

However, Maseno Uasu Chapter secretary-general Billy Ng’ong’a said the university union officials had no power to call off the strike.

He said the decision by some lecturers to resume work on Monday was reached at a meeting he was never invited to. (Read: Union split over lecturers’ strike)

However, he admitted that Uasu had no power to prevent any lecturer who opts to resume work.

At Masinde Muliro, the university said it was making efforts to persuade union officials to attend a meeting to discuss the matter.

Prof Sibilikhe Makhanu, the deputy vice-chancellor in charge of Administration and Finance, said an invitation was sent to the union officials on Friday and Saturday but they had not responded by Sunday.

“Our position is that the strike is illegal, but we are looking into ways of meeting the union officials to find a way out of the stalemate.”

Uasu maintained that the strike is on even as it claimed that some institutions were now compelling their workers to resume duty.

Kenyatta University vice-chancellor Olive Mugenda said her management would ban striking workers from demonstrating on the university’s grounds.

The VC said she had informed lecturers to call off the strike and supervise the forthcoming exams.

About 28,000 students will sit for their exams from Thursday next week.

Addressing the students during Mass at the Catholic chapel, she announced that all the three unions representing lecturers and non-teaching staff had also agreed that essential services should not be disrupted.

Uasu KU Chapter chairman John Kinyanjui said the union was holding consultations with the national office and will issue a statement on the way forward on Monday.

Industrial action

He did not elaborate whether they are likely to suspend the industrial action.

At the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Uasu Chapter secretary-general Joseph Mberia and his Universities Non-Teaching Staff Union (Untesu) counterpart Nickson Chege said they would not back down.

“As far as we know, the strike will continue until that time when the national delegates conference will decide otherwise,” they said.

Reported by Aggrey Mutambo, Benson Amadala, Dennis Odunga, Oliver Musembi, Ouma Wanzala, Timothy Kemei and Valentine Obara