Salary woes hit universities as Treasury withholds cash
Due to National Treasury delays in releasing cash, public universities are unable to pay their workers, causing a crisis in the educational system.
Professors have walked out of courses to protest the failure to connect capitation to the 38 public colleges.
To be able to pay the arrears, several colleges have been obliged to bargain with banks. Jacob Musembi, national deputy secretary-general of the Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu), announced that the union would convene a crisis meeting to provide guidance to its members.
Dr. Musembi accused the government of failing to provide salaries on schedule and threatened to shut down education if the problem persisted.
He claimed that neither the government nor the State Department for Higher Education and Research had disclosed the cause of the delay.
Despite writing to the Ministry of Education on Tuesday, Dr. Musembi claimed there had been no response by Wednesday night.
The delay in releasing February salaries, according to union representatives at Moi University, is anticipated to significantly affect the way in which instruction is delivered. Most members, according to chapter chair Richard Okero, are unable to meet their needs.
Around 90% of the staff members reside in Eldoret Town, which is 35 kilometers distant, and they have trouble getting to work because they cannot afford to travel, according to Dr. Okero.
The university’s administration informed staff of the funding delays last week through acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration, Planning and Strategy) Ambrose Kiprop.
“As you are aware, the university pays its employees’ wages mostly from capitation from the National Treasury. This is to inform the workers that the university has not yet received the cash necessary to pay February salary. In part, the March 10 message states, “We wish to thank all staff employees for [their] patience… and convey an assurance that salaries will be [paid] once capitation is disbursed from Treasury.
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According to teachers at certain universities, including Maasai Mara University, salaries were paid last Friday. For the previous two days, payments have been made at the University of Eldoret.
“I received my February paycheck on Tuesday. Others received their paychecks on Monday,” a staff member at the institution remarked.
University staff members were suffering, according to Uasu branch secretary Philip Chebunet, who urged the Education Ministry to ensure prompt money transfer.
The anguish of delayed capitation is felt by families. While the ministry should assure timely distribution and greater capitation for the higher education sector, we advise universities to have alternative sources of funding, according to Mr. Chebunet.
He requested that the ministry make sure that students be only admitted to private universities when public universities have reached capacity.
The lecturers at Pwani University have received their February paychecks. There are roughly 250 lecturers at the university.
“By February 1st, they had gotten their pay. We are unsure of [the university’s] source of funding, though. A instructor speculated that they may have used internal resources to be able to pay.
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The government was blamed by the lecturers for missing the deadline for submitting the capitation.
“Salaries are a significant problem for us. You can picture a professor receiving payment only on the fifteenth of each month. A don remarked, “We are asking why the government is not releasing the capitation to universities on schedule because the majority of academics are in debt.
