Kenyan university lecturers begin nationwide strike over 2025–2029 pay deal

Lecturers belonging to the Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) began a nationwide strike in Kenya on Friday 2 October 2026, after negotiations on the 2025–2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) stalled over who pays for it.

UASU Secretary-General Constantine Wasonga said at the launch: "I want, therefore, as the Secretary-General ... to declare the strike officially launched," according to Kenyans.co.ke. The union issued a seven-day strike notice on 24 September 2026.

The money at issue

The Star reported that the union was going to reject a figure of KSh 9.76 billion, which Wasonga said "they are proposing in Machakos". The Star, writing before the talks, described the amount as one the government was expected to table in negotiations in Machakos. Wasonga argued that the amount was insufficient to finance the demands in the four-year agreement. The Star also says the union had exhausted available channels of engagement before issuing the strike notice.

Wasonga is quoted by The Star as saying: "When we negotiated the 2021–2025 CBA, for two years we consumed Sh9.7 billion". The Star also reports that the union wants allowances harmonised and that the CBA includes car loans and mortgages.

Kenyans.co.ke reports that three unions – the Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU), the Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers (KUDHEIHA) and UASU – rejected a counter-offer from the Inter-Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum on salaries, allowances, medical benefits and staffing levels. According to the Nation, the parties had met at Machakos University but the meeting ended in disarray, and the unions announced the strike on Thursday afternoon, 1 October, saying negotiations over the 2025–2029 CBA had failed to yield an agreement.

Who pays

According to the Nation, the core dispute is the source of funds. Universities want dedicated Treasury funding for the new CBA. The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) indicated that funds for the proposed 2025–2029 CBAs "will be provided by the National Treasury through the student-centred University funding model". The Vice-Chancellors' Committee chairperson, Prof Daniel Mugendi, said public universities "continue to experience severe financial constraints" in meeting their existing obligations.

In an earlier report, the Nation said UASU demands a government commitment to pay lecturers' salaries from the Exchequer, and rejects a model the government is considering under which individual universities would finance national CBAs.

On campus

Kenyans.co.ke reports that Stephen Monanda, UASU's Kenyatta University chapter chairperson, stood outside the university's main gate and told lecturers: "Do not make the mistake of going to teach." The site says similar action was reported at Laikipia University, Bomet University, Chuka University and Egerton University's Nakuru Campus.

The University of Nairobi (UoN) said a memo circulating online that announced closure from 2 October was fake and told students and staff to disregard it. The memo was dated 30 September.

Delays cited

According to The Star, Wasonga said the strike follows what the union considers prolonged delays by university councils, the Ministry of Education and the National Treasury in implementing agreements reached with academic staff.