Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi had distanced the Ministry from the ongoing lecturers' strike, laying the blame solely on the Ministry of Education and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).
Speaking on Citizen TV on Saturday, Mbadi highlighted the fact that the Treasury had already released all the money owed to the lecturers as agreed in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
"About the lecturers' strike, the problem is not with the Treasury. The issue lies in the lack of understanding between the Ministry and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC). That’s where it needs to be resolved,” Mbadi stated.
“Last year, we agreed and allocated Ksh4.3 billion as agreed. The funds were released under Article 223 and later regularised in the Supplementary Budget."
He went on to add that for the 2025/26 financial year, it committed to releasing Ksh2.7 billion, which had already been disbursed at the beginning of the year, even though it was supposed to be spread out over the course of the year.
He further questioned the lecturers' timing for the strike, claiming the funds they were referring to date back several years, and that the matter of determining how much is owed to lecturers falls under the Education and Labour ministries.
“I will also mention that the question of how much was actually owed is something I’ve only heard about; I don’t have the full facts. That matter lies with the Ministries of Education and Labour,” he said.
“From what I understand, there were amounts that were supposed to have been paid between 2017 and 2021. I don’t know what the lecturers were waiting for; if those payments were due in 2021 and were not made. I don’t understand why it has taken until 2025 for these concerns to be raised.”
