NAIROBI, Wednesday 28 October 2026 — The Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) has struck a deal with the government on financials, paving the way for an end to a lecturers’ strike that has paralysed public universities for about four weeks.

Addressing journalists at the union’s offices in Nairobi on Wednesday evening, UASU Secretary General Dr. Constantine Wasonga said the strike will be officially called off on Friday, 30 October 2026, at exactly 3 p.m., and assured students that lectures will resume on Monday, 2 November.

“We have a deal on financials,” Wasonga declared, flanked by members of the union’s leadership. “He took charge, and today we have a deal.”

“A figure we negotiated, not one imposed on us”

Wasonga stressed that the breakthrough rests on a figure agreed at the table, not one handed down to the union. He framed this as the core of the dispute.

“Today, we have agreed on a figure we have negotiated with the government, not a figure imposed on the union,” he said. “These things, when we talk, we solve them. But you don’t impose figures on us. Then what is the role of the union?”

He said the union will now sit down to put what has been agreed on paper. He did not disclose the amount agreed during the briefing.

The Secretary General recalled that at an earlier press briefing he had challenged the Cabinet Secretary for Education to take personal charge of the talks. “He took charge, and today we have a deal,” he said. “I want to tell the country that CS Ogamba is a man of his word.”

Praise for three government officials

The union credited three officials with bringing the two sides together and unlocking the talks:

  • Julius Ogamba, Cabinet Secretary for Education, who Wasonga said kept his word after taking charge of the negotiations.
  • John Mbadi, Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury. “You have made us happy today as members of the university community,” Wasonga said.
  • Dr. Raymond Omollo, Principal Secretary for Internal Security, whom the union thanked “for bringing us together.”

A second union official at the briefing described the three as “gallant sons of Kenya” who had “held the bull by its horns” and committed to engage union leaders until the impasse was broken.

Three hours with government, years with vice-chancellors

The union drew a sharp contrast between Wednesday afternoon’s talks with government and its long-running negotiations with university management.

University employers negotiate with UASU through the Inter-Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum (IPUCCF). The union said what it had failed to agree with vice-chancellors under that forum for years was settled with the government in a single afternoon.

“What took the vice-chancellors and ourselves years to get an agreement, we have taken exactly three hours, and we’ve gotten a deal,” the union said. “A deal has been arrived at very amicably.”

Next steps: technical teams, and a warning over “every cent”

The union outlined the steps between Wednesday’s deal and the end of the strike:

  1. Thursday, 29 October: union and government technical committees meet to simulate the agreed figures and work out the exact amount due to each striking member of staff.
  2. Before Friday: the figures are finalised so that every lecturer’s entitlement is accounted for.
  3. Friday, 30 October, 3 p.m.: UASU officially calls off the strike.
  4. Monday, 2 November: lecturers return to work and lectures resume.

The union also warned vice-chancellors against holding back any part of the money. “It is us who have negotiated this deal. What they failed to do, what they failed to arrive at, we have been able to get,” it said. “So they should not remain with any single cent.”

Apology to students, a call to return to class

Wasonga told students to start heading back to campus. “Comrades, start walking towards your universities,” he said. “I want to assure you that on Monday, you shall have your lessons.”

The union apologised to students for the delay to their studies. It asked them to prepare and make their way to their lecture halls ahead of Monday.

Union members were told to give thanks before returning to work. They were urged to pray, the Seventh-day Adventists on Saturday and other Christians on Sunday, so that they go back to work on Monday.

The union closed by thanking the government for showing “magnanimity” that would make its members happy and allow them to resume their duties.

What to watch

The strike has kept public universities “in limbo for the last four or so weeks,” in the union’s words. Whether it ends on schedule now depends on Thursday’s technical talks.

The amount agreed has not yet been made public. The union’s formal notice calling off the strike, expected on Friday afternoon, should confirm the figures and the return-to-work terms.

Reporting by Hamasta Media, Nairobi. For more news, visit www.hamastamedia.com.

Photos: The Standard (union and Education Ministry officials, October 28, 2026); University of Nairobi Tower by EstherWikipedian via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Thumbnail design: HAMASTA MEDIA.