According to the University Academics Staff Union (UASU) Multimedia University (MMU), Chapter Secretary Onesmus Maluki who is also the union’s National Organizing Secretary has revealed that part-time lecturers at MMU have not been paid since 2018.
During a recent interview, Maluki revealed that the part-time lecturers have not been treated fairly and that it is inhuman since they have been having and still have bills to pay after rendering their services to the university.
“Part-time lecturers have not been paid since 2018 yet they are required to work as normal. How will they pay their bills? How have they been surviving all this while?” he wondered aloud.
According to Maluki, part-time lecturers at the university take on more classes compared to their full-time colleagues.
“Full-time lecturers can only manage a quarter of the classes so the other three-quarters are managed by part-time lecturers,” he revealed.
Maluki wondered how it was possible for someone to stay that long without getting paid and still wake up and go to work at the institution.
He revealed that it was possible that the lack of funds in universities was the cause of the problem for such a situation.
In his view, the cash-stripped public universities should be saved to be able to meet their financial obligations, the government should either increase its capitation to public universities or allow for increased fees rates from the current Kshs. 16,000 to Kshs. 48,000.
“If either of those is not done, public universities will continue struggling financially,” he said.