University of Nairobi Students Protest Lecturers’ Strike, Call for Education Minister’s Resignation

University of Nairobi students blocked sections of Waiyaki Way on Wednesday, October 21, demanding an end to the nationwide lecturers’ strike and calling for Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba to resign, prompting police to disperse the demonstrators.

The protesters lit bonfires, burnt tyres and erected stone barricades, disrupting traffic along the busy Nairobi highway and forcing motorists to seek alternative routes.

Ahmed Rashid, president of the University of Nairobi Students Association, told the crowd that “our lecturers must be paid; the Ministry of Education has failed us” and urged the resignation of the education minister.

The lecturers’ strike began on October 2, 2026 over the implementation of the 2025-2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement, with the Universities Academic Staff Union and the Kenya Universities Staff Union among the unions involved.

UASU Secretary-General Constantine Wasonga said the strike would continue after talks collapsed on October 12 and the union rejected the government’s counter-offer.

UNSA had issued a 72-hour ultimatum on October 16, warning that students would march to the Ministry of Education if the dispute was not resolved, citing missed lectures, postponed examinations and delayed graduations.

On Thursday, October 22, students at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology issued a 48-hour ultimatum, saying they would join the industrial action unless the government addressed the unions’ demands, with Clinton Oyaya warning of hardship over accommodation and food costs and Maurice Oliech noting delays to teaching-practice attachments.

Dr Francis Odundo, secretary-general of the Kenya Universities Staff Union at JOOUST, said union leaders could not call off the strike without consulting members, while Isaiah Ngoje, secretary-general of the Kenya Universities Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers Union, said workers want the government to negotiate, register and implement the agreement.

The escalating student pressure adds to calls for the government and university staff unions to reach a settlement that would allow lecturers to return to classrooms and restore normal academic activities.