UASU Rejects KSh11bn Government Offer, Vows to Intensify Strike

The Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) has rejected the government’s latest counter-offer for the 2025-2029 collective bargaining agreement and announced that the lecturers’ strike, which began on October 2, 2026, will be intensified.

In a statement issued in Nairobi after the Inter-Ministerial Committee meeting on October 26, 2026, the union said the government tabled a verbal counter-offer of KSh11 billion, while another report said the figure was KSh11.9 billion, both down from the KSh12 billion proposal made on October 12, 2026, and both translating to an estimated three percent increase in basic salaries.

UASU described the proposed increase as inadequate, citing government data that petrol prices have risen by 20 percent and diesel prices by 42 percent since the start of the year, and argued that a three percent basic salary increment does not address the economic realities facing university staff.

The union said the Inter-Ministerial Committee meeting ended without a resolution and declared that industrial action will be intensified and escalated until a credible counter-offer is presented and the government provides an unequivocal commitment to fund public university staff salaries through the National Exchequer.

Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba said the government is reviewing a previously rejected figure of approximately KSh9.7 billion to KSh9.8 billion and is working with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission and the National Treasury to improve that figure before presenting a second offer, urging lecturers to return to work and warning that prolonged action would deny students valuable learning time.

UASU Secretary General Dr Constantine Wasonga questioned why a four-year agreement should receive funding comparable to the 2021-2025 CBA, which consumed KSh9.7 billion over two years, and said the union will not relent until its demands are substantively addressed.

The strike has disrupted learning in public universities across Kenya since it began on October 2, 2026, with the union calling on staff to remain united in pursuit of a satisfactory settlement.