When a Signed CBA Becomes a Suggestion: Kenya's Strange War on University Education

UASU has accused the government of failing to honoiur the CBA agreement. [File, Standard]

There is something deeply peculiar about the way Kenya treats its lecturers. The Government can sign a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), shake hands, smile for photographs and allow everyone to return to work believing that an agreement means what the English language says it means: an agreement. Then, sometime later, the same Government behaves as though the document was merely an ambitious suggestion.

Why would an employer allow an entire cadre of workers to honour its side of a negotiated return-to-work formula while appearing reluctant to honour the bargain? This is no longer merely a labour dispute. It is a troubling question about agreements, constitutionalism and the dignity of public service.