Moi University has announced plans to cut its workforce, including lecturers, as it undertakes a fresh restructuring programme aimed at restoring its financial stability after more than a decade of mounting debt and operational challenges.
The institution’s Acting Vice Chancellor, Kiplagat Kotut, told the National Assembly’s Education Committee on Thursday that the university is carrying out a workload analysis to identify employees whose services may no longer be required.
Kotut said the exercise is intended to streamline operations and eliminate positions where staff members have little or no workload.
“We realised some of the lecturers have not been teaching. They are parasitising on others, so we are saying that since they do not have anything to do, we will release them,” he told the committee.
The announcement comes as the university battles a severe financial crisis, with accumulated debts exceeding Sh8 billion and pending bills now standing at more than Sh10 billion.
According to Kotut, the pending bills stem from budget deficits that have accumulated since 2014, placing immense pressure on the institution’s operations.
He appealed to lawmakers to allocate an additional Sh1.9 billion in the 2026/27 financial year to support the university’s recurrent expenditure and ease its financial strain.
“The issue of pending bills remains a major concern for us. We request that this committee consider adding Sh1.9 billion to support recurrent expenditure for 2026/27,” he said.
However, members of the Education Committee challenged the university’s management to demonstrate the measures taken to restore confidence in the institution and reverse concerns over its financial sustainability.
In response, Kotut said the administration had focused on rebuilding trust among students and parents by ensuring academic programmes run on schedule, students graduate on time, and long-standing challenges such as missing examination marks are resolved.
He noted that the reforms are beginning to bear fruit, citing a steady rise in student enrolment over the past three years.
According to the Acting Vice Chancellor, student admissions increased from 5,000 in 2024 to 6,800 in 2025, with enrolment projected to reach 10,000 this year.
The planned layoffs mark the latest phase of the university’s restructuring efforts following a series of redundancy exercises undertaken in 2025 as part of an aggressive cost-cutting strategy.
In March last year, the institution terminated the contracts of 324 employees working in security, cleaning, hostel and library services. Two months later, it issued redundancy notices to 892 employees, including about 120 lecturers, in one of the largest workforce reductions in the university’s history.
Moi University has faced sustained scrutiny in recent years over its financial management, with allegations of misuse of public funds, irregularities in construction projects, unpaid obligations and other transactions that have contributed to substantial financial losses.
