UASU members demonstrating on September 24, 2025 outside Parliament building. [Edward Kiplimo, Standard]
The Employment and Labour Relations Court has warned universities against delaying or denying lecturers’ salaries, on the pretext that they are underfunded by the government.
Judge James Rika expressed his dissatisfaction that many cases, including three he cited, had been filed by aggrieved lecturers against their respective universities over unpaid remuneration.
He said the court was concerned that whenever these cases are filed, the standard reasons the universities give for delaying or denying payment had been underfunding of universities.
The judge said that faced with such underfunding and financial constraints, universities ought to engage their unhappy lecturers constructively by making reasonable payment plans.
“Universities must plan themselves, instead of mounting spirited and oftentimes technical objections and stonewalling on the merit of these payments,” the judge directed.
According to Rika, honest universities must undertake to clear any issues that may end up delaying salaries to lecturers, to avoid unnecessary court processes that take years.
The judge made the utterances when he awarded Eunice Waruguru Sh1.08 million in unpaid dues after she worked as a part-time lecturer at Laikipia University.