About 120 lectures at Moi University facing dismissal got a reprieve after their union, the University Academic Staff Union (Uasu), obtained a High Court order suspending the redundancy process.
Justice Maureen Onyango of the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Eldoret issued the order, directing the university to halt the dismissals pending the hearing and determination of a case filed by Uasu under a certificate of urgency, as well as another application challenging the process.
The lecturers are among about 900 employees who have been issued with redundancy letters by the institution as part of cost-cutting measures.
“The letters of redundancy dated 13/5/2025 are hereby suspended pending the hearing of this application and the application dated 28/4/2025,” directed Justice Onyango.
Both applications will be mentioned for further directions on May 28, 2025.
The union, through lawyer Titus Koceyo, argued that the university issued the redundancy letters when there was a pending case challenging the intention to fire the lecturers.
He said that when the application seeking to stop layoffs came up for hearing on May 14, the court directed that the parties negotiate and discuss within two weeks and report back to court on May 28, 2025.
“Immediately parties left court and before any start of the intended negotiation and discussions as directed by the court, the respondent proceeded on the same day to issue 120 redundancy letters to the members of the union; redundancy letters backdated to May 13, 2025 even though the respondent had informed the court that no such letters had been issued,” the lawyer said in his application.
He said that unless the university was stopped from effecting the redundancy, the lecturers were likely to suffer loss of employment and that the move was in violation of the labour laws.
The intended redundancy of the lecturers was being carried out in a secretive manner and the dismissal may not be reversible unless the court stops the university from implementing the process.
He added that the institution was yet to inform the union of the criteria used to identify staff to be laid off, taking into account their seniority, skills, ability and reliability as required by section 40 (1) (c) of the Employment Act.
Last month, UASU moved to court to challenge the university’s intention to sack some of its members.
The matter came up for mention on Wednesday and the management asked for 14 days to negotiate with the union.
However, the university issued redundancy letters to its staff in line with the restructuring plans announced earlier this year, affecting staff across all departments.
The management has defended the redundancy of staff, arguing that it has been necessitated by a reduction in revenue as a result of a decline in student enrolment and the ballooning wage bill.
Prof Kiplagat Kotut, the acting vice-chancellor, issued the notice in April.
He said the student numbers have dropped from 48,000 in 2015 to 21,000 currently, making it difficult for the university to meet its financial obligations.
The decision came three months after a new management team was appointed to turn around the fortunes of the financially troubled institution.
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba appointed Prof Noah Midamba the new council chairman after President William Ruto promised to constitute a committee to evaluate the scale of the crisis facing the university and recommend a long-lasting solution.
Prof Ronald Wasike, Dr Mercy Nyambura Kanyara, Dr Edwin Sambili and Anne Weceke Makori were also appointed as members of the university council.
“We have a plan to rebuild this university in the next one year to achieve its greatness. We are focusing on students, faculty and staff apart from sustainability and power of innovation,” said Prof Midamba.
He said that the priority of the council is to get the university back on track, adding that the process can be painful at the beginning but will eventually yield transformative results.
“The role of the university is teaching, research and community—creating knowledge to help people. Ideally, the ratio of teaching and research to support staff is 70 to 30 per cent but what we currently have is 30 to 70 ratio and that is what is killing our public universities,” Prof Midamba said.
He said that affected qualified lecturers will be re-hired once the university stabilises its operations.
They however doubt this.
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