UASU Condemns Moi University Job Cuts
The union warned that failure to meet the demands could lead to industrial action, including a strike and legal action before the Employment and Labour Relations Court.
photo by Anneth chepngetich
By Anneth Chepng’etich.
The Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU), Moi University Chapter, has condemned the decision by the university management to declare 75 faculty members redundant, accusing the institution of replacing permanent academic staff with part-time lecturers.
Speaking on the matter, UASU Moi University Chapter Secretary Prof. Robert Oduori said the decision was contradictory, with the university declaring staff redundant while advertising for part-time lecturers to fill the same positions.
“You fire and hire at the same time? How does this address purported financial challenges the university allegedly faces? You fire at a time that the staff on the ground are overloaded. What kind of workload analysis did you do?” said Oduori.
Oduori said student numbers at Moi University have continued to increase while staff numbers have declined through natural attrition and resignations without replacement.
“You cannot claim there is no work when you are inviting applications for the same work the next day. This is not redundancy; it is unfair termination disguised as restructuring,” he said.
UASU National Trustee Dr Jane Michael said the union was opposed to the move and would continue protecting the jobs of the affected faculty members.
She said the planned redundancy would affect not only the lecturers but also their families, who depend on their salaries to meet expenses such as school fees, mortgages and medical needs.
“Behind the figure of 75 are 75 families, with mortgages, school fees, and medical needs. To throw them into joblessness in this economy while outsourcing their livelihood to precarious, benefit-less contracts is both heartless and reckless,” said Jane Michael.
UASU Moi University Chapter Chairman David Kosgey said replacing experienced full-time faculty with part-time lecturers would negatively affect the quality of education at the university.
“Replacing 75 experienced full-time faculty with part-timers is the height of casualization of academic work. It will lower academic standards, erode research output, and devalue the degrees of our students,” said Kosgey.
The union has demanded the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the redundancy notice and the withdrawal of the advertisement for part-time lecturers in the affected departments.
UASU has also given the university management seven days to engage the union in genuine consultations.
The union warned that failure to meet the demands could lead to industrial action, including a strike and legal action before the Employment and Labour Relations Court.
UASU has further called on the Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Education, Commission for University Education and Federation of Kenya Employers to intervene and stop what it termed the casualisation of academic labour.
“Academic labour is not casual labour.”
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