Thousands of lecturers from Kenya's 71 public universities on Wednesday launched an open-ended countrywide strike, paralyzing education for more than 200,000 regular students.
"We just want money. Money is the problem," 32-year-old John Okello told Anadolu Agency.
"They were given money. We need money."
Lecturers are demanding $50 million for salary increases and house allowances, which they claim have been either misused or pocketed by the vice-chancellors of their universities.
They say the money is part of what they describe as the "2012 Collective Bargaining Agreement" with the government.
"This is money that was stolen from workers of public universities," an adamant Wycliffe Okusimba, 54, told AA.
Before the strike started, strikers went around offices and lecture halls, where they flushed out colleagues who had refused to take part in the strike.
The express purpose of the strike was to bring all university activities to a halt.
"The strike is a total success because all our members are out and we have paralyzed all the universities' operations," Peter Kabugu, an accountant at the University of Nairobi, told AA.
Apart from students missing lectures, more than 30,000 non-teaching staff at public universities stayed home on Wednesday.
The strike also affected some 300,000 self-sponsored students who missed classes.
-'Illegal'-
The lecturers defied a court order banning them from striking.
The order followed a petition filed by Kenya's Inter-public Universities Council to stop the industrial action pending negotiations with the government.
"The strike is not illegal. It is legal," Johnstone Odanga, a lecturer in his early 50s, told AA.
"Somebody cannot steal from you, when you go and ask him for the money. He goes to court," he added.
Odanga's colleague, 35-year-old Simon Wambua, also criticized the court ruling.
"Then that one [court] shows that our courts have become enemies for protecting the rich to oppress the poor," he asserted.
The strikers have vowed not to resume work until their demands are met.
By James Shimanyula
englishnews@aa.com.tr
