A total of 204 employees from Kisii University were on Tuesday fired, just a day after the institution reopened after six months of closure.
Kisii University Vice-Chancellor John Akama explained that this move was inspired by a reduced number of students at the institution enrolling for parallel programmes.
The reduced revenues translated to financial depression meaning the varsity could not make it to pay the salaries of a huge workforce.
Akam added that a majority of the employees who were sacked were non-teaching staff.
The VC said that Kisii University is complying with a directive by the Ministry of Education that capped the population of non-teaching staff at not more than 30% of the institution’s total workforce.
Education CS George Magoha directed all universities and colleges to resume classes on Monday, October 5.
Most universities kicked off the reopening by admitting new students who sat for their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination (KCSE) in 2019 but were yet to be admitted due to the coronavirus pandemic.
However, these institutions of higher learning are battling a major cash-crunch as the number of students drops drastically and funding by the government dips.
The aftermath will be letting go of their staff.
On Thursday, the University of Nairobi (UON) lecturers from the College of Health Sciences threatened to go on strike a few days after reopening.
According to the University Academic Staff Union (UASU), UoN has not paid clnical allowances.
“Academic staff condemn the unilateral withdrawal of payment of the clinical allowances by the University of Nairobi in complete disregard of employment and labour loss,” UASU Secretary General Constantine Wasonga said.