The top management of cash trapped Egerton University has resorted to arm-twisting and fear-mongering among its workers as a survival scheme following a string of accusations and poor running of the institution.
The strategy is meant to send fear and chills down the spine of the suffering staff amid plans to sack lecturers and scrap five-degree courses as part of the university’s desperate plans to save its face.
The vice chancellor Isaac Kibwage claims that the move will enhance financial stability of the debt ridden university and end frequent strikes over delayed salaries.
Kibwage is set to scrap degree courses which he claims are not attracting enough students but the move will definitely lay off lectures who were hired lecturers for them.
But the truth of the matter is that the courses are being handled by rebellious lecturers who are also members of local Uasu chapter and unwanted in the university.
Lecturers in those departments will have to exit and pave way for sycophantic colleagues who are in good books with the incompetent management.
The university is secretly hiring new staff, including characters with questionable academic papers. Egerton receives Sh185 million funding from the government and raises Sh26 million from other sources, including tuition fees paid by students.
Its payroll currently stands at Sh240 million per month and other operational costs but its current debt is a whopping Sh9.925 billion.
The lecturers have issued a notice of the mother of all strikes in the first week of February 2023
“This is to serve you the notice of intention to withdraw labor with effect from February 6 2023, if the university will not have complied with the court order,” the notice reads in part.
The looming strike is on account of the university’s failure to comply with a court order issued on May 30 2022, directing it to pay 100 per cent salaries as at November 2021.
The strike notice comes just weeks after students reported back from December holiday break and it is likely to spread to other public universities facing similar problems.
