Kenyatta University. /FILE

Students across all public universities are expected to resume learning on Monday following the end of a 28-day lecturers’ strike that was called off on Friday last week.

More than 30,000 university staff affiliated with the Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu), Kenya Universities Staff Union (Kusu) and Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers (Kudheiha) downed their tools on October 2 to push for the conclusion of negotiations, signing and implementation of the 2025–2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

The unions called off the strike on October 30 after reaching a Sh20 billion deal with the government on Wednesday, October 28.

Union officials assured students that learning would resume on Monday without fail and urged their members to return to teaching promptly.

The agreement followed intervention by an interministerial team comprising the Ministry of Education, the National Treasury and the Ministry of Interior, spearheaded by Head of Public Service Felix Koskei.

It came after a series of unsuccessful conciliation meetings between the unions and the Inter-Public Universities Council Consultative Forum (IPUCCF), whose final offer of Sh11.96 billion was rejected by the unions.

Under the agreement that ended the strike, the government committed to disbursing the Sh20 billion in three phases.

The first Sh6.7 billion will be provided in the 2026/2027 financial year, with a similar amount allocated for 2027/2028.

The remaining Sh6.6 billion will be disbursed in the 2028/2029 financial year.

The deal provides for an annual salary increment of 3.5 per cent over four years, backdated to July 1, 2025, in addition to an automatic annual pay increment of five per cent.

Lecturers will also benefit from enhanced and harmonised leave, commuter, passage and baggage allowances, covering the majority of academic staff.

The parties further agreed that outstanding salary and allowance arrears accumulated between July 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026 would be paid in three equal instalments.

Arrears accruing between July 1 and December 31, 2026 will be settled alongside January 2027 salaries.

The agreement also provides for the withdrawal of all disciplinary action against academic staff over their participation in the strike. Non-permanent staff were assured that their contracts would not be denied renewal on account of their involvement in the industrial action.

The strike paralysed learning across public universities, triggering anxiety among students, some of whom twice staged demonstrations demanding government intervention to resolve the dispute.

With classes set to resume, university managements now face the challenge of recovering the lost academic time without further disrupting research, examination and graduation schedules as the year draws to a close.