Students at public universities across Kenya are expected back in classrooms on Monday, November 2, after lecturers ended a 28-day strike, according to The Star, Kenya. The unions called off the industrial action on Friday, October 30, following a Sh20 billion agreement with the government reached two days earlier.
More than 30,000 staff belonging to the Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu), the Kenya Universities Staff Union (Kusu) and the Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers (Kudheiha) had stopped work on October 2. The Star, Kenya reports that they were pressing for the 2025–2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement to be finalised, signed and put into effect.
Union officials said teaching would restart on Monday without fail and asked their members to get back to work quickly.
Why it matters
The shutdown halted instruction at public universities nationwide and left students anxious about their academic calendars. Some students held demonstrations twice during the strike, calling on the government to step in and settle the dispute, The Star, Kenya reports.
For the unions, the outcome turns on more than the salary figure. The deal also covers back pay, revised allowances and a pledge to drop disciplinary cases linked to the strike — issues that had kept the two sides apart for weeks.
How the deal was reached
Talks had stalled between the unions and the Inter-Public Universities Council Consultative Forum (IPUCCF), which made a final offer of Sh11.96 billion. The unions turned it down.
An interministerial team then took over, drawn from the Ministry of Education, the National Treasury and the Ministry of Interior and led by Head of Public Service Felix Koskei. That push produced the Sh20 billion settlement on Wednesday, October 28.
Under the agreement, the money will be released in three stages. The first Sh6.7 billion is due in the 2026/2027 financial year, with the same amount set for 2027/2028, according to The Star, Kenya.
Academic staff will receive a 3.5 per cent salary increase each year for four years, counted from July 1, 2025, on top of an automatic five per cent annual pay rise. The deal also brings improved and standardised leave, commuter, passage and baggage allowances for most academic staff.
On arrears, salary and allowance sums built up between July 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026 will be paid in three equal instalments. Amounts accruing from July 1 to December 31, 2026 will be paid together with January 2027 salaries.
The agreement also provides for all disciplinary action against academic staff over their role in the strike to be withdrawn. Staff without permanent positions were told their contracts would not be refused renewal because they took part in the industrial action.
Coverage of the settlement has been mixed. The Standard reported that the Sh20 billion deal leaves lecturers with a 3.5 per cent salary increase, while Daily Nation examined why the pay agreement does not resolve the wider crisis in public universities. Citizen Digital described the terms of the deal that ended the strike.
The road back to the timetable
With classes restarting, university administrations must now make up four weeks of lost teaching without upsetting research, examination and graduation schedules, with the academic year already nearing its end.
The task is complicated by the calendar. The strike ran through most of October, a period when many institutions are preparing for end-of-year assessments, and any catch-up plan will have to fit around fixed dates for tests and graduations.
For students, the immediate question is how missed coursework and continuous assessment will be handled. For the unions, attention shifts to whether the phased payments arrive on schedule.
What to watch: whether the first Sh6.7 billion tranche is released in the 2026/2027 financial year as promised, and whether universities can recover the lost weeks without pushing exams and graduations back.
