The Kenyan government and university lecturers reached a verbal agreement valued at KSh20 billion on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, bringing an end to a four-week strike that halted teaching in 35 public universities.

University Academic Staff Union (UASU) Secretary General Constantine Wesonga said the two parties will sign the deal on Friday, October 30, and that the money will fund basic salaries and allowances under the 2025–2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement, with the signing serving as a return-to-work formula.

Wesonga told reporters, “We have a deal on the financials. Tomorrow our technical team is going to sit down to put what we have agreed on on pen and paper,” and added that lecturers will resume teaching on Monday, November 2, urging members to return to their institutions.

He also addressed staff, saying, “To comrades, start walking towards your universities. I want to assure you that from Monday, you shall have your lessons,” and noted that unions will review the proposed allocations for individual staff before signing.

The strike began on October 2 when UASU, the Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU) and KUDHEIHA rejected a 4 per cent annual salary increase proposed by the Inter Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum (IPUCCF), leading to a collapse of talks on October 1 and a demand for fresh negotiations and implementation of the 2025–2029 CBAs.

The government initially said it could not exceed KSh12 billion, a figure the unions dismissed as a 3 per cent rise in basic salaries; an inter-ministerial committee later offered KSh11.96 billion on October 26, which was also rejected, before the government raised its offer to KSh20 billion, prompting the lecturers’ acceptance.

Wesonga remarked, “Today we have agreed on a figure we have negotiated with the government, not a figure imposed on the unions,” and said that union officials, university heads, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba, Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi and Interior Principal Secretary Raymond Omollo participated in the talks.

Earlier that day Wesonga held consultations with Chief of Staff and Head of the Public Service Felix K. Koskei, Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi Ng’ongo, Principal Secretary for Higher Education Beatrice Muganda Inyangala and Principal Secretary for the National Treasury Chris Kiptoo.

Parliamentary pressure mounted on October 22 when National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula led MPs to call on the Executive to end the standoff, and Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah warned that “students are wasting away at home.”

The Kenya University Students Organisation backed the lecturers and threatened its own protests, while University of Nairobi students blocked Waiyaki Way on October 21 and again on October 27, lighting bonfires and erecting barricades before police used tear-gas to disperse them.

Classes will restart once the unions and the government sign the agreement on Friday, after which lecturers are expected to return to classrooms on Monday, November 2.