After closing Kenya’s six public universities, the Kenyan government has announced it will only negotiate with lecturers if they call off their strike.
The government said it would only then negotiate a better pay package with teaching staff, which entered its second day on Tuesday.
The government has been talking with the staff union since March when it presented demands for higher pay and better terms, but the Education Ministry had asked lecturers to wait until February to work out the details of an improved package, said assistant minister Kilemi Mwiria.
”Once the strike is on, it is not possible to talk. If the strike is off, then it is better. It is in the interest of everybody to have the institutions opened. The government is open to discussions. We’d like the Uasu [Universities Academic Staff Union] to be more patient and tolerant,” Mwiria said.
On Monday, the six universities were closed indefinitely after the strike began. Police were posted around the universities in anticipation of violence, but students, who support the strike and who have rioted frequently in the past, remained calm.
Union officials said the ministry has had enough time to study demands and documents submitted by staff and vice-chancellors to be able to negotiate a deal.
”We’re ready for dialogue with the government,” said John Nderitu, national chairperson of the Uasu. But the staff ”are very hard on that they’ll not end the strike to talk,” he said.
Nderitu also said the union had given the government enough notice of the strike, which was originally set for September 4.
The starting monthly salary of a public university teaching assistant is 14 015 shillings (R1 200). The union wants that increased to 265 438 shillings (R23 000). A full professor’s starting monthly salary is 30 960 shillings (R2 700). The union wants that increased to 926 705 shillings (R80 600).
Private universities in Kenya pay their teaching staff about 100 000 shillings (R8 700) a month; most are smaller business or theology-oriented institutions with fewer students, compared with the public institutions.
Over the years many members of the teaching staff have left public universities for better pay in private institutions or at universities abroad.
In March, Kenyan legislators voted to increase their own salaries and benefits by 90 000 shillings (R7 800) a month to 485 000 shillings (R42 200).
Kenya’s annual per capita income is R2 220. About 56% of Kenya’s 30-million people live on less than R7 a day, and most don’t have access to clean water and electricity.
The university strike is the second in Kenya’s history.
Lecturers first went on strike when the government of former president Daniel arap Moi refused to register their union in 1993.
The strike lasted for 10 months from September 1993 to June 1994, and Mwiria, who was then secretary general of the unregistered Uasa, was one of the many lecturers fired for taking part in the strike.
The union was registered early this year after President Mwai Kibaki led the National Rainbow Coalition to a landslide victory in December elections, ending the 39-year rule of the Kenya African National Union. — Sapa-AP