By Robert Mutasi 
Moi University is facing a fresh labour crisis after management announced plans to declare 75 senior lecturers, including professors, redundant, prompting the Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) to reject the move and threaten industrial and legal action.
In a letter dated August 18, 2026, Acting Vice-Chancellor Prof Kiplagat Kotut informed UASU of the intended retrenchment, citing sharp declines in student enrolment and falling revenues that have left the institution unable to meet operational costs and monthly payroll. The notice affects professors, senior lecturers and lecturers.
UASU Moi University Chapter Secretary Prof Robert Oduori strongly opposed the decision, pointing to a clear contradiction: the university is advertising for part-time lecturers in the same departments while planning to shed permanent and pensionable staff. “We register our strongest displeasure and total rejection of the decision by the University Management to declare 75 of our members redundant while simultaneously advertising for part-time lecturers to fill the same positions,” Oduori said.
The union has demanded the immediate withdrawal of both the redundancy notices and the part-time lecturer adverts. It has given management seven days for genuine consultations. Failure to comply, Oduori warned, will lead members to withhold teaching materials, refuse handovers and commence a strike, alongside legal action in the Employment and Labour Relations Court.
The dispute comes just days after the university admitted more than 8,000 first-year students, with lecturers already reporting large classes and strained capacity.
This latest standoff highlights deeper structural problems at Moi University. Declaring experienced academics redundant while hiring temporary staff risks further eroding teaching quality, research output and postgraduate supervision at a time when student numbers are rising.
Rather than repeated cycles of redundancy notices, the institution needs transparent financial audits, genuine dialogue with staff unions and sustainable reforms that protect both academic standards and livelihoods.