Why Sh20bn lecturers’ pay deal does not resolve crisis in public universities

The month-long strike by public universities' academic and non-academic staff over a pay dispute may have ended after the government committed Sh20 billion for salary increases, but the deeper crises confronting Kenya’s higher education remain unresolved.

The biggest challenge is not staff pay – it is governance, policy and legal frameworks and funding. However, successive governments have papered over these issues, opting for short-term fixes rather than long-term and meaningful interventions, giving room for the problems to pile up.