By Michael Karanja
Since the onset of the 2024/2025 academic year, lecturers from various public universities have downed their tools on account of discontent with their employer. Media platforms are embracing this wave with intense and captivating headlines, but who is giving the side of those most affected?
See, when these strikes occur, students stand on the receiving end. They stand to lose in every aspect of the situation, especially when the colliding parties take the longest time to meet common ground.
September usually marks the beginning of a new academic year. This is the time freshas (first years) join the institutions for which they worked smart and hard. Picture the status quo where these innocent souls arrived only to be confronted by the gloomy reality of paralytic operations, it’s a bad show.
Aside from the fresh admissions, this is typically the period when finalists look to smooth-line their records to ensure untroubled time ahead of graduation. With lecturers away –since we don’t know when, students on the brink of graduation are having stomach-turning and sleepless nights.
The current state of affairs is also taking a toll on continuing students. Campus life has never, and will never be easy. Chronicles of the many stressful events bestowed on the minds of young comrades can make an outsider sad, just by listening. Truths like “kuinama” (missing a meal or two due to financial constraints), bombarding academic pressures, and campus love are just the tip of the iceberg.
Undoubtedly, we all want out, but in the completion style –not the dropout style.
However, this was never the case several decades back. Talking to alumni of these dignified institutions, you will catch a glimpse of admiration for their campus ages. Comrades actually enjoyed their time in school. Posing the question, where and when did we take the wrong turn?
Snapping back to our current lamentable times, it is unfortunate because even when Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) and Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU) agree with the Government on the arrears of lecturers and the signing of their 2021-2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the damage will already be done.
Remember, the clock has never gone on strike. Looking at my calendar, I see that the second-last month of the semester is already counting its last days. Unlike the monies that reimburse the universities’ staff, students’ lost time is never recovered, only trials to make up ground.
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