The country’s University lecturers were Thursday urged to indulge patience and wait for the economy to improve before they agitate for a pay hike.
Nyaribari Masaba MP Dr Daniel Manduku said the country was still in the red to meet any pay rise demands.
He however, said it was within their right to push the government to meet the obligations of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
“Yes it is their constitutional right but not at the moment when the economy is in the doldrums,” Manduku said .
He said the mood in the Country at the moment does not warrant any pay rise
He said even the MPs were forced to reject their annual increment for this year owing to a broke Treasury.
The pay hike was supposed to reflect in the payslips from July.
“I am one of those who came out strongly and said it is the wrong time,”Manduku told journalists in his constituency Thursday a day after University staff Union officials spoke of ‘stalled negotiations regarding the 2021-25 collective bargaining agreement.
UASU Secretary General Constantine Wasonga accused the Inter-Public Universities Council Consultative Forum (IPUCCF) of taking them in circles since September 4, 2020, when they first submitted their pay proposals for the CBA.
Dr Manduku however said though he remains sympathetic to the lecturers’, pay hike push they should suspend the strike and stop punishing the students who are already reporting in.
“Just like everyone else in the country, let them understand that this is the wrong time, let them suspend their strike until they have renegotiated the time lines for the implementation of the collective bargaining agreement,” the MP said.
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