The Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) has issued the government a seven-day strike notice over the stalled 2025-2029 collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
Teaching staff in all public universities are expected to down their tools on October 2, potentially disrupting learning as first-year students settle into their first semester of the 2026 academic calendar.
“The strike shall commence at midnight next Friday 2nd October 2026. This painful decision follows the persistent failure by the councils of universities, the Ministry of Education, and the National Treasury to honour the Return-to-Work Formula signed on 5th November 2025,” read part of the notice.
The union said the government has failed to provide a counter-proposal for the 2025–2029 CBA.
The notice comes barely a week after the union gave the government one month to negotiate, sign and implement the new five-year CBA, which has been delayed for nearly a year.
UASU Secretary General Constantine Wasonga said the union had agreed with the Inter-Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum (IPUCCF) to conclude negotiations before the end of 2025.
Addressing the media on September 19, Wasonga said the Ministry of Education had asked for more time to address the union's demands.
"We have given them one month. We call upon the government to intervene urgently and resolve these matters before the damage to university education becomes irreversible," Wasonga said.
He said the union would not leave room for further compromise after giving dialogue a chance.
Among the key issues UASU wants addressed in the new CBA are medical cover, the employment of more teaching staff and the payment of lecturers' salaries from the Exchequer rather than student fees, which the union says is unsustainable.
"Supposing students don't pay fees like the way they have not paid now, what will happen to our salaries?" Wasonga asked.
"We have never heard other public sector employees being told to generate their fees. And who came up with the mantra that money follows the students? Supposing money refuses to follow the student?"
UASU has also accused the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) of frustrating the implementation of labour agreements by declining to approve several internal CBAs negotiated between individual universities and UASU chapters.
The latest strike notice comes after nearly a year without a nationwide university lecturers' strike.
The previous nationwide strike ran from September 17 to November 5, 2025, paralysing learning in public universities as lecturers demanded payment of salary arrears arising from the 2017-2021 and 2021-2025 CBAs, as well as delayed implementation of salary increments.
UASU called off the 49-day industrial action on November 5, 2025, after signing a return-to-work formula with the government and IPUCCF.
