A call for honesty, integrity, and respect in higher education
University employees nationwide have been on strike for months, not just for compensation but also for justice, truth, and dignity. What started as a pay issue has now exposed a governance instability, disinformation, and disdain for intellectual labor.
The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) is at the center of the controversy, as its figures for the 2017-2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) significantly undervalued the entitlements of university employees. For months, unions claimed that the SRC’s numbers were incorrect, only to be regarded as unreasonable and aggressive. However, the new audit has vindicated them; the data the unions had continuously cited were correct all along.
After months of industrial standstill and public pressure, the government admitted the truth. It now admits that the arrears must be paid, but proposes doing so in two installments. This latest “offer” has been met with mistrust, and rightfully so. Experience has shown that once employees return to work, promises frequently fade into silence and delay.
As I listened to the National Treasury, the Ministry of Education, and union representatives present before the Education Committee of Parliament, I couldn’t help but wonder why everyone is so concerned about the welfare of the students while almost no one talks about the welfare of the staff members who instruct, guide, and support them. What does this signify for those who promote learning? Can we trust the same institutions and leaders who, until the audit revealed the reality, claimed they “cannot promise to pay immediately”?
To make matters worse, the 2025-2029 CBA negotiations began with a humiliating offer: a 2% pay raise. Such an offer is humiliating rather than negotiating for a sector that influences the nation’s intelligence and creativity. It undervalues the contributions of academics who help the nation’s human capital and promote its development goals..
Even worse, some universities have chosen intimidation over communication by punishing those who dare to speak up, withholding salaries, and giving show-cause letters to staff. Ironically, some of the persons leading these intimidation methods are themselves beneficiaries of the same CBA, enjoying its benefits while undermining the exact fight that enabled those benefits. It contradicts logic and breaches the camaraderie that academics are supposed to demonstrate.
This is no longer just a labor dispute. It acts as a moral litmus test for Kenya’s commitment to justice, truth, and respect for knowledge. Integrity, the foundation of higher education, is jeopardized when public institutions deceive the country, postpone justice, and turn against their own brains.
The university strike reflects a larger national issue in which reality is malleable, promises are flexible, and knowledge keepers are regarded as disposable. Kenya cannot claim to value education, creativity, or achievement while demeaning the people who make these things possible.
The audit has spoken. The truth has been revealed. The question that still has to be answered is whether the government and university councils would behave honorably—not just verbally, but practically. Because at this point, rebuilding trust requires payment rather than promises.
Until then, one truth stands unshaken: truth may be delayed, but it never dies.
What are your thoughts? Your voice is important, so please share your opinions in the comments section.
The author is a strategy and governance consultant, leadership trainer, and university lecturer. She writes about leadership, workplace fairness, and the ethical dimensions of management.
Email address: info@marymugo.com.
You can buy our books on Amazon or at https://marymugo.com/shop/
Or at Nuria Bookshop by clicking the links,
https://nuriakenya.com/product/growing-a-business-empire-by-dr-mary-mugo/
https://nuriakenya.com/product/the-winning-strategy-by-dr-mary-mugo/
https://nuriakenya.com/product/dissecting-the-heart-of-leadership-by-dr-mary-mugo/
True. Given the way the CS and SRC have been taking us round in circles over the amounts owed, the government functionaries cannot be trusted. Remember, it is the government that employed delay stupid tactics by appealing against the justice of its workers
Absolutely 💯 correct