By Erick Nyayiera
The Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) has threatened to auction the assets of various universities to recover more than Sh328 million owed to the union.
The union had successfully gone to court seeking to compel the universities to release dues owed to various UASU chapters.
UASU Secretary General Dr Constantine Wesonga also wants the management of public universities to explain how the Sh6.6 billion released by the government to public universities was spent.
For the implementation of the 2017-2021 Collective Bargain Agreement (CBA), the Court had ordered the government to release Sh8.8 billion but the Ministry of Education only made Sh6.6 billion available.
The Sh6.6 billion was to be used to pay the arrears for 36 months in accordance with the 2017-2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
“We now want the court to allow us attach the Vice Chancellors vehicles and other valuables for auction to enable us recover the arrears,” said Dr Wesonga.
The union leadership accused the universities of misappropriating the money.
“The Vice Chancellors have diverted the money to other areas instead of giving the union chapters the funds owed to them. This is unacceptable,” he said during an UASU members’ conference in Kisumu.
Wesonga threatened to attach the assets of Kenyatta University, which he said owed the union over Sh36 million, Technical University of Kenya whose arrears stand at Sh50 million, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (Sh18 million) among others.
“Moi University has not even honoured the deal to pay the agreed salaries. Egerton University has only paid 60 per cent of what it should pay lecturers,” the Secretary General said.
He, however, lauded the University of Nairobi for being up-to-date with payments.
Kisii University management was also acknowledged for heeding the union’s call and beginning the implementation of the CBA in a 100 per cent and 40 per cent deal that will see unpaid months covered.
Wesonga appealed to the government to release the Sh2.2 billion to universities to enable full implementation of the 2017-2020 CBA.
“We are asking the government to release the deficit and be clear on the payment guidelines because we are experiencing glaring disparities. There needs to be uniform disbursement across universities,” he said.
On the agency fee, Dr. Wesonga threatened to go to court to compel the Ministry to pay the remittances.
“The ministry has not responded to our plea and we think the only solution is to go the KUPPET way where the ministry was ordered to pay the teachers’ union dues directly,” he said.
UASU chairman Prof Muga K’Olale appealed to the union members to stop attacking their leaders and instead forge harmonious working relations.
“Our chapter leaders face a lot of tribulations from Vice Chancellors. We need to protect our officials. Nobody can pay them for the risks they take when they fight for your cause,” said Prof K’Olale.
UASU Treasurer Dr. Janepha Kumba said the union was facing a bleak financial future because of failure by universities to pay part time lecturers.
“Even as we understand that universities are struggling to make money, the government is sitting pretty looking at public universities to go down,” said Dr Kumba.
