Technical University of Kenya (TUK) employees haven’t been paid since 2013

The financial issues at the Technical University of Kenya (TUK) are now receiving attention, as both former and current officials faced difficult inquiries regarding how the institution fell into billions of shillings of debt.

The Parliamentary Committee on Education and Administration was shocked to discover that TUK staff – including educators – have not received their complete salaries since 2013, the year the institution attained full university status and a charter.

TUK Deputy Vice Chancellor Benedict Mutua stated: “Since 2013, to be honest, no TUK employee has received a full salary. ”

The main issue; over-employment. TUK has recruited significantly more staff than necessary – and the financial pressure has made it unfeasible to fulfill salary commitments.

“Our greatest challenge is having an excessive number of staff. The government allocates Ksh. 63 million monthly, yet we require Ksh. 270 million to meet salary expenses,” Mutua further explained.

That’s not all. The university has not submitted employee deductions for years. Over Ksh. 5 billion in pension funds remains unaccounted for — and total debts have soared beyond Ksh. 12 billion.

Former TUK Deputy Vice Chancellor Francis Oduor remarked: “I genuinely cannot recall the last time we submitted deductions… to be truthful, we haven’t made any payments since the university became a fully chartered institution. ”

The committee declared the university to be financially insolvent — and ordered government auditors to promptly examine TUK’s financial management within three months, as they hold discussions with the Ministry of Education on how to address the TUK crisis that poses a risk of completely halting all operations at the institution.