Nairobi, KENYA: University lecturers’ Academic Staff Union (Uasu) and other staff unions including KUDHEIHA Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers have urged Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed to intervene and end the ongoing lecturers strike.
In a media briefing in Nairobi, the UASU national deputy treasurer Mohammed Mwachiti said that there is a need for the cabinet secretary to intervene on the matter so as to avert further stalemate over the 2017-2022 collective bargaining agreement.
They have said that the government has ignored the March the 2017 CBA agreement.
“We gave out our proposal on talks March 5th, 2017, we have been taken all around without any fruitful engagement, when we issued our proposals March last year they promised to give us their proposal within two weeks but from March last year it has been cat and mouse game,” Mwachiti said.
In their list of demands, Uasu wants the 2017-21 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiated, signed and implemented.
The lecturers also want the housing scheme available to other civil servants.
They have accused the vice chancellors committee of sabotaging any form of talks between the lecturers’ unions and the government derailing truce between the two parties.
Mwachiti said that the university unions will keep on pushing the government until their grievances are addressed.
The stalemate exposes the more than 600,000 students in all public universities, who already lost many academic weeks to strikes last year.
