Members of the Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) march to the University of Nairobi on February 6, 2014 over the delayed implementation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) they had with government. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA  NATION MEDIA GROUP
Vice chancellors and college principals have agreed that they got more than their fair share of the Sh7.8 billion negotiated for university staff.
The public universities heads told the Parliamentary Committee on Education that they each received undisclosed amounts over and above their job group entitlement.
The officials from 31 universities and colleges are now set to appear before the committee on Thursday where they will be required to hand in reports for scrutiny by the Auditor General. 
“We have agreed to treat each university as a separate case. You (top managers) should submit documents by Tuesday,” the committee chairperson Sabina Chege said.
She was speaking on Thursday during a consultative meeting aimed at averting a strike called by the unions agitating for payment of Sh3.9 billion of the award, which they say did not reach their members.
TOP MANAGERS ASSIGNED THEMSELVES MONEY
The universities disclosed that they were holding Sh1.3 billion in surpluses, nearly two times the Sh736 million they had indicated in previous reports. The reports also showed top managers in the institutions got another Sh404 million.
Unions say their 6,000 members got only half of the increase in salaries and allowances that was agreed in the 2012 collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
The CBA stated that only employees in job groups one to 15 — professors — would benefit from the salary review. However, vice chancellors, deputy vice chancellors and college principals — who belong to job groups 16 to 18 — assigned themselves part of the proceeds.
University of Nairobi vice chancellor George Magoha said the administrators have always benefitted more than other staff from pay increases.
“In the two CBAs we have negotiated in the last 10 years we have always been paid twice — as professors and as managers of universities. We have not had issues with the previous pay agreements. Why should this be different?” said Prof Magoha, also a member of the Inter-Public Universities Council Consultative Forum (IPUCCF) that signed the CBA on behalf of workers.
The University Academic Staff Union (Uasu) and the Kenya University Staff Union (Kusu) now want the top managers prosecuted for economic crimes.