Treasury must Honour University Staff CBA, Wasonga tells the MPs

University lecturers have urged the government to honour its commitments under the 2025–2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), warning that attempts to finance staff salaries through university fees could undermine the agreement and worsen financial pressures facing public universities.

The lecturers, led by Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) Secretary-General Constantine Wasonga, appeared before a joint sitting of the National Assembly Committees on Education and Labour to present their concerns over Petition No. 29 of 2026, which seeks the implementation of the 2025–2029 CBA for employees of public universities.

Wasonga told the lawmakers that the petition centred on three major issues: funding university staff salaries through the National Exchequer, failure to negotiate the 2025–2026 CBA and Sh100 billion in outstanding debts owed to public universities.

He said the outstanding debt had directly affected university employees, including pension contributions and statutory deductions made from their salaries but not remitted to the relevant institutions.

"This money of Sh. 100B owed to universities is pending bills directly affecting staffs, including pension, third party deductions from the employees," Wasonga told the committee.

He insisted that salaries for university employees should be financed directly by the National Treasury rather than being left to individual institutions to raise money through student fees.

"The agreement should be honored and must be concluded and our salaries must come from National exchequer," he said.

The union's concerns come amid questions over the government's commitment to financing the 2025–2029 CBA, with the Ministry of Education and the National Treasury committing to provide Sh20 billion towards its implementation.

Under the proposed arrangement, the money will be released in three tranches of approximately Sh6.7 billion each, beginning in the 2026/27 financial year, followed by payments in 2027/28 and 2028/29.

Wasonga told the lawmakers that the first tranche would be financed through the supplementary budget estimates for the 2026/27 financial year.

He further outlined commitments made by the government, saying mortgage schemes were expected to be finalised by December 31, 2026, while outstanding negotiation items were to be concluded by February 28, 2027.

However, the union expressed concern over proposals suggesting that university staff salaries could be financed through student fees, arguing that such an arrangement would contradict the intended funding framework.

Wasonga urged MPs to amend the Tertiary Education Placement and Funding Bill, 2026, to clearly separate student financing from institutional funding and protect the government's responsibility for paying university staff.

"Amend the tertiary education placement and funding bill 2026 to distinguish Students from institutional financing and preserve a funding of the salaries from the national exchequer," he told the committee.

The proposal attracted criticism from MPs, who questioned the rationale behind linking lecturers' salaries to fees paid by students.

Prof. Phyllis Bartoo challenged the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) over its position on the matter, questioning the implications of shifting the responsibility for financing lecturers' salaries to university fees.

"SRC what informed your decision to say financing of university lectures should be from University fees? You're trying to set a bad example," she said.

Julius Melly said the committee would engage the National Treasury to ensure that the CBA received the necessary attention and that the government's commitments were honoured.

"We shall ask the national treasury to take this CBA seriously," Melly said.

Labour Principal Secretary Shadrack Mwadime said the government and the union had already held discussions and agreed on timelines for resolving the outstanding issues.

"The fact that we sat and were able to resolve the issues that were at hand the matter financial we should be able to resolve within 3 months and the datelines were agreed upon," Mwadime told the lawmakers.

But Wasonga maintained that the union remained concerned about the position attributed to the SRC, particularly reports that the National Treasury had communicated proposals to finance university salaries through student fees.

"When SRC says that they got a letter from the Treasury and they are already talking on funding through student fees it makes us worry and that is not the law," he said.

The joint committee is expected to consider the concerns raised in the petition as Parliament examines the funding framework for public universities.