Learning at Maasai Mara University has been disrupted after lecturers downed their tools, accusing the government of failing to provide adequate operational funding to public universities and reneging on negotiated collective bargaining agreements.

Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) Narok Chapter Secretary Bonface Isalambo said lecturers had been pushed into the strike by the government’s failure to fulfil commitments under the 2025-2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

“Any nation that starves its university is starving its future. Learning has been completely paralysed. I urge parents to make arrangements to have your children return home because there is nothing going on in the university,” Isalambo said during a press briefing at Maasai Mara University.

He criticised the government’s funding model, particularly the principle that “finances follow the student”, arguing that it was placing an excessive burden on students and lecturers to finance public universities.

“We are saying that university staff are public officers. We cannot convert universities into private entities through the back door,” he said.

Isalambo said the union had proposed that public universities be funded through the Exchequer like other public institutions, rather than relying heavily on student fees to sustain their operations.

He said the 2025-2029 CBA was expected to address issues including harmonisation of allowances, basic salaries, car loans and mortgages.

“The CBA was supposed to take care of things such as harmonisation of allowances, basic salary, car loans and mortgages,” Isalambo said.

Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU) representative Galfen Omuse echoed the concerns, saying university workers were demanding the negotiation, signing, registration and full implementation of the 2025-2029 CBA.

“It cannot be possible that every time we want a CBA signed, we have to go to the streets. It is now past one year. The 2025-2026 financial year has already elapsed. Nothing has come forth,” Omuse said.

He urged the government to move with speed to resolve the stalemate, saying workers could not rely on government directives and court orders to meet their basic needs.

“We want to request the Government to move with speed because when the Government comes on the table and there are no beacons from SRC and no allocation of resources from the Treasury, you cannot expect us to continue working as if everything is normal,” he said.

Omuse also criticised calls for university staff to comply with court orders relating to the strike, saying such directives did not address the workers’ underlying financial concerns.

The lecturers’ strike comes amid a wider dispute between university staff unions and the government over funding, remuneration and implementation of negotiated agreements.

The unions maintained that lecturers would not resume teaching until their concerns were addressed, raising fears of continued disruption of learning and academic programmes at the institution.

 by Emily Kadzo