UASU national chairperson Muga K'Olale [Photo/www.nation.co.ke]
University Academic Staff Union (UASU) has questioned the existence of the Vice Chancellors’ positions in public universities lamenting over the unaccountability at the top management docket yet the government kept funding institutions.
UASU has called for an audit of public universities warning that the sector would collapse if the ministry fails to conduct an urgent stocktaking on the VCs offices accusing a number of them of not informing the government on the expanse of their workforce.
“We are shocked that the ministry does not even know how many lecturers are in public universities. It is at the time when we were negotiating our CBA that the ministry was seeking to find out our number yet there are vice-chancellors. We wonder who created this unaccountable office that does not even file tax returns despite receiving funds from the government,” grieved UASU secretary general Constantine Wesonga.
The officials who spoke yesterday in Nairobi said their members kept empathizing with students and feared that learners are at risk of not being taught effectively and many of them may fail to graduate in good time.
UASU chairman Muga K’Olale said they had resolved to petition various public sectors to stand in solidarity with their push for enhanced terms of service and remuneration as a way of ensuring sanity is restored to the public universities.
A number of public universities reopened this week but lecturers have vowed to only go back to teaching when their industrial action bears fruits effectively warning it may not matter how long teaching would be paralysed.