Kenya Lecturers Set to Strike as Universities Report US$770 Million Hole

Kenya · BUSINESS

Kenya’s public university lecturers plan to strike from 2 October. Their bosses say the state already owes them more than US$770 million.

Nairobi’s skyline seen from Nairobi National Park. The capital hosts several of Kenya’s largest public universities (Photo: Timothy A. Gonsalves, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons)

Kenyan public universities say they cannot pay for a new lecturers’ pay deal without fresh money from the national Treasury. They told the state pay regulator that the government owes them more than Sh100 billion (about US$770 million).

Kenya is East Africa’s largest economy and a regional centre for higher education. Its lecturers are public employees, and their pay is agreed nationally between unions, universities and the government.

The warning lands days before a planned nationwide strike. The lecturers’ union says its members will stop work at midnight on Friday 2 October.

All figures here are converted at KES 129.5 per US dollar (open.er-api.com, 26 September 2026).

What the universities told the regulator

The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) sets and advises on public-sector pay in Kenya. It asked vice-chancellors to confirm what money they had to fund the 2025–2029 collective bargaining agreement, or CBA.

A CBA is a pay and conditions deal negotiated between employers and a union. The SRC said it needed the figures to judge whether the deal was affordable.

In a letter dated 23 September, the Vice-Chancellors’ Committee of public universities answered bluntly. Its chair, Professor Daniel Mugendi, said the state had never fully paid what it owed under the current funding model.

“The outstanding amount presently standing at over Sh100 billion,” he wrote, according to the Daily Nation. That is about US$770 million in unpaid state funding.

The vice-chancellors asked that the extra cost of the new deal be “fully funded by the National Treasury”. They said absorbing it from existing allocations would further strain institutions already in serious financial difficulty.

What the Sh100 billion figure measures

The Sh100 billion (about US$770 million) is the universities’ own estimate of arrears. It covers money they say the government owes but has not sent since the funding model changed.

That model is the Student-Centred Funding Model, introduced in 2023. It ties state money to each student admitted and each course offered, mixing government scholarships, loans and household contributions.

The SRC has told universities that the new pay deal will be funded through this same model. In practice, each university would pay lecturers from the money it receives per student.

The universities reject that. They say the per-student money already falls short of their existing wage, teaching and running costs.

Why the lecturers plan to strike

The Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) represents teaching staff at public universities. It issued a seven-day strike notice at a Nairobi press briefing on 24 September.

Its secretary-general, Dr Constantine Wasonga, said the government had failed to honour a return-to-work deal signed on 5 November 2025. That deal ended an earlier strike by lecturers.

The union says the SRC told university unions on Monday 21 September that no written funding promise existed. Neither the Ministry of Education nor the Treasury had committed to pay the deal from the national exchequer.

Without that promise, the SRC could not issue the formal advice needed for the government to make a pay offer. The union says talks have therefore been “an exercise in futility”.

UASU also objects to any plan to fund lecturers from student fees or commercial income. It argues that academic staff are public officers whose pay must come from public funds, as Kenya’s constitution requires.

“We cannot have CBAs funded from students,” Dr Wasonga told the Daily Nation. Other public education workers, he noted, concluded their own 2025–2029 deals last year.

A wider squeeze on higher education

The pay fight comes on top of a hole in student financing. Budget estimates for 2026/27, reported in June, showed a large gap at two state funders.

The Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), which lends to students, was allocated Sh56.3 billion (about US$435 million). It needed Sh112.1 billion (about US$866 million), leaving a gap of Sh55.8 billion (about US$431 million).

The Universities Fund, which pays scholarships, faced a further shortfall of Sh16.26 billion (about US$126 million). Together, the two gaps come to Sh72.06 billion (about US$556 million).

Reports at the time estimated that nearly 689,000 students might not receive full support. That student-funding gap is separate from the Sh100 billion (about US$770 million) the universities say they are owed.

Parliament is also considering the Tertiary Education Placement and Funding Bill, 2026. UASU wants it to guarantee that lecturers are paid from the exchequer.

What it means for foreigners

A strike would halt teaching at Kenyan public universities, which host exchange students and joint research projects. International students should check with their university about exams and term dates.

Foreign partners running research grants or campus contracts should plan for delays. Universities already say they cannot meet existing obligations.

For investors, the standoff is a test of how Kenya handles public wage demands on a tight budget. Lecturer strikes have been a recurring feature of Kenyan campus life.

What to watch next

The first test is whether the Treasury issues a written funding commitment before 2 October. That would let the SRC advise on a pay offer and could avert the strike.

If no commitment comes, the strike is set to begin at midnight on Friday. Talks, conciliation by the labour ministry or a court order could still delay it.

The deeper question is who pays for Kenyan public universities: the state, students or the institutions themselves. The answer will shape the sector well beyond this pay round.

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