"The Strike Is Still On" KUSU SG Dr Charles Mukhwaya Insists
Kenya University Staff Union (KUSU) Secretary General Dr Charles Mukhwaya has come out strongly about the issues around the ongoing lecturers’ strike, a day after Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba begged the lecturers to call off the strike.
While speaking on Tuesday, November 4, 2025, in an interview with a local media house, the KUSU Secretary General maintained that the strike is still on across all forty-two universities.
“The strike is still on. It’s still on because our members right across all 42 universities feel that the government owes them Ksh7.9 billion,” Mukhwaya noted.
On his part, Mukhwaya maintained that the lectures are demanding full payment, unlike the proposed two-phase plan by the Ministry of Education.
“The government started by proposing the first three payment plans. We declined, and then the government came down again and said, “Let us try to get this money paid within two phases.” Again our organs have said no,” he added.
In addition, the KUSU boss further revealed reasons as to why the lectures have declined the two-phase plan, while linking it to an overstay of the debt from 2017.
“Why? Because they feel that they have been owed this money for far too long a time. From 1st July 2017 to date, and you still want to pay them in phases up to 2029,” he noted.
On the other hand, Mukhwaya has argued that the amount owed by the government to the lecturers was too little for the Ministry of Education to make the payments in batches.
“So this little money is going to be paid for more than a decade. Where will the value of that money be, and where was the value of that money then? That is where we are, right now, eight years in a row,” Mukhwaya said.
His remarks come at a time when the lecturers are demanding that the government pay their Ksh7.9 billion arrears in full and immediately.
On the other hand, the government has proposed a three-phase payment plan, which the lecturers maintain will not work because the government has owed the money for far too long.
