Roundup: Kenya's lecturers set to begin strike despite court order

Lecturers from Kenya's public universities on Wednesday declared a nationwide strike from Thursday after the government failed to implement a salary rise deal signed in 2013.

The Universities' Academic Staff Union (UASU), Kenya University Staff Association (KUSA) and Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotel, Educational and Allied (KUDHEA), representing teaching and non-teaching staff in 33 public universities threatened to paralyze the country's education sector in the country.

UASU Secretary General Constantine Wasonga called on the three unions to remain united in their resolve to achieve better standards of living for their members.

"Without the 2013-2017 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), there will be no learning; no research activities; no innovation across all the public universities," Wasonga told journalists in Nairobi.

The pay dispute between government and university workers has been going on for years, with lecturers and non-academic staff calling for strikes.

Among other demands, UASU wants the salary of an assistant lecturer to be 3,600 U.S. dollars per month while a lecturer should earn 10,000 dollars.

The union is also demanding that house allowance be adjusted so lecturers and tutorial fellows get 1,350 dollars a month as professors pocket 2,500 dollars.

Union officials claimed that the last time teaching staff in public universities were awarded a salary increase was in 2010.

They regretted that salaries for university teaching staff have remained stagnant for a long period during which the cost of living rose tremendously.

The unions accused the government of failing to take into account UASU's proposals to the Salary and Remuneration Commission (SRC) and the Inter Public Universities Council Consultative Forum (IPUCCF) submitted in December 2012, despite awarding CBA's to workers in other sectors including the contentious agreement between doctors and the government, signed in 2013.

The move comes after the Employment and Labour Relations Court on Wednesday extended orders stopping the university academic staff strike.

Lady Justice Hellen Wasilwa gave directions in a case in which the Inter Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum of Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) have sued the Universities Academic Staff Union.

The judge directed that the strike should not take off so as to pave way for negotiations to continue this week.

FKE lawyer Grace Kanyiri said that they have offered a counter proposal to UASU but the union is insisting on basing the negotiations on the CBA of 2012.

The lawyer for UASU however said they are willing to suspend the planned industrial strike that was slated for Thursday and embark on talks on condition that the talks are based on the two documents, the 2012 CBA and the 2017 counter proposal from the government.

The negotiations are scheduled for Jan. 23 with Justice Wasilwa directing the parties to report to court after a fortnight on Feb. 1 to give an update on the talks.

The pay dispute in the recent past saw lecturers down tools accusing the government of failing to implement in total a 2008/2009 CBA signed between unions and Inter-Public Universities Council Consultative Forum.

The lecturers were then pushing for 40-percent pay hike. The salary talks are long overdue -- the Salaries and Remunerations Commission directed all government departments in 2012 to initiate talks that would culminate in CBAs for 2013-17.

The looming strike will affect 33 public universities where majority of youth from low-income families enroll for higher education.

University lecturers have since mid last year threatened to go on strike due to poor remuneration despite their heavy workload. Endit