As one of the steps to ease the financial crisis facing the world, the government plans to send home thousands of non-teaching personnel from all public universities. During the meeting attended by the Treasury and the Parliamentary Committee on Education, the Chairman of the Vice Chancellors of Public Universities, Prof. Geoffrey Muluvi, said that universities were struggling to remain operational and handle debts owing to employees and other government bodies. KRA, pension fund fees, benefit costs, Sacco contributions, NHIF, and NSSF have accrued unremitting contractual payments from universities. By September 2020, the overall sum held by KRA is around Sh37.3 billion, half of which is to KRA, Prof Muluvi said. The Treasury made a request to the universities to sell their idling properties, including funds for land and buildings. The funds should help them pay the salaries of their creditors and employees. Most of the debts of the university are owed to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and have accumulated to a whopping Ksh 37.3 billion.



The Principal Secretary of the National Treasury, Julius Muia, advised universities to consider shutting some of their constituent colleges that have increased their total financial expenses. The PS also reported that the gap in most universities was too large between teaching and non-teaching staff. Simon Nabukwesi, Education PS, acknowledged that the enforcement of the Collective Bargain Agreements (CBA) has consistently impacted the university budget over the years. One of the university workers who talked privately to a reported said that once the government imposes the lay-off plans, many households will be affected and some of them have worked for more than 20 years with their employers.

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