Lecturers say Sh800 pay offer an 'insult'

Striking Kenyan university lecturers have termed as an "insult and mockery" a Sh825 government pay offer for the highest paid tutors.

The lowest paid cadre have been offered an salary increase of Sh200.

In a letter addressed to the lecturers by the Inter-Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum (IPUCCF), the government noted that the increase was its counter-offer to the demands of the lecturers.

“The basic monthly salaries in Kenya Shillings shall be increased to the respective ranks of the academic staff members of the public universities at the rate of 0.5 per cent.

“House allowance shall be increased to the respective ranks of the academic staff members of the public universities at the rate of 0 per cent,” the letter signed by chairman of the IPUCCF, Prof Peter Mbithi said.

Gross injustice

But in a rejoinder, University Academic Staff Union (Uasu) secretary general Muga K’Olale termed the offer as an insult and a mockery to the lecturers.

“Common sense dictates that you cannot offer employees 0.5 per cent and zero per cent for house allowance!," he said during a news conference in Nairobi Friday.

“This is gross injustice and unfairness of the highest order. While the government on one hand offers hefty packages for vice chancellors and executive members of staff at the universities, lecturers are discriminated.

“Let us not forget that the bulk of the university work is done by the lecturers. We insist that lecturers must be paid salaries that are commensurate to the service that they offer to the institutions," he said.

He noted that the strike would only be called off if the government placed on the table “serious offers".

Uasu proposes to raise the pay of a university professor to a maximum of Sh400,000 up from the current 165,000 a month and a house allowance of Sh95,000 up from Sh64,000.

An associate professor’s salary would rise to Sh298,000, from Sh135,000 and a house allowance of Sh85,000.

A senior lecturer would earn Sh221,000 and a house allowance of Sh75,000, lecturer Sh165,000 and a house allowance of Sh70,000 and an assistant lecturer Sh121,000 plus Sh55,000 for housing.

Similarly, pay for a graduate assistant lecturer - the lowest paid -- would rise to Sh78,000 and Sh45,000 for housing from the current Sh40,000 and Sh30,000 for housing.

The non-teaching staff led by Dr Charles Mukhwaya are rooting for a 200 percent salary increase.

“Currently the government is admitting double intake of students in the universities. This is to mean that we are doing twice the amount of work for the same pay as we have received previously,” Dr Mukhwaya noted.

The lecturers have been invited for talks by the IPUCCF on Monday next week to negotiate the salaries and house allowances further.

The meeting is scheduled to be held at the University of Nairobi.

“Two wrongs do not make a right,” Mr K’Olale said referring to the counter-offer of the government and the subsequent meeting.

“We are the ones who have always insisted on the dialogue all along but the government has been unwilling to jumpstart the negotiations that stalled four years ago,” he said.