Hundreds of university lecturers could be forced out of public institutions earlier than expected if a new retirement framework remains in place, prompting their union to seek urgent intervention from the Court of Appeal.
The Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) has filed an application asking the appellate court to suspend a Public Service Commission (PSC) directive that lowered the mandatory retirement age for university academic staff.
The union is challenging the implementation of the new rules after the Employment and Labour Relations Court dismissed its case on July 29.
Under the PSC circular issued on March 2, 2026 and later amended on April 28, professors are required to retire at 70 years, down from the previous age of 74.
Senior lecturers and other academic staff will retire at 65 years or earlier, depending on their cadre.
Uasu says enforcing the changes before its appeal is heard could result in lecturers losing their jobs and cause losses that cannot easily be repaired.
'If the orders sought are not granted, the appellant's members would suffer irreparable loss and damages, and the instant application will be deemed nugatory because execution
will have occurred," Uasu lawyer Titus Koceyo says in the application.
The union is now asking the Court of Appeal to stop the new retirement arrangement while it pursues its challenge against the decision of the Employment and Labour Relations Court, which upheld the revised framework.
The dispute has emerged as public universities face growing pressure over the number of academic staff available to teach students.
Uasu has warned that sending experienced lecturers home at a time when universities are already short of staff could leave institutions struggling to deliver their programmes.
At the University of Nairobi (UoN), the institution could lose about 480 lecturers if another 40 per cent of its academic workforce is affected by the new retirement rules.
This would leave the university with roughly 800 academic staff.
UASU-UON Secretary-General George Osanjo said the situation is the result of a steady fall in the number of lecturers at the university over the past six years.
He said the institution's academic workforce has reduced from 2,000 to about 1,200 during that period.
Maseno University could face an even wider impact if the PSC directive is implemented. Dr Stephen Onyango, the Uasu Maseno University Chapter Secretary, said the university could lose half of its academic staff.
The union has also challenged the manner in which the new retirement ages were introduced.
In its court filings, Uasu says the changes interfere with collective bargaining agreements and were brought in without enough consultations with the affected parties.
The union has raised further concern over the workload already facing lecturers in public universities.
Some academic staff are teaching more courses and dealing with more students than the workload normally set by the Commission for University Education (CUE).
At Maseno University, a lecturer is required to teach five courses in one semester, compared with the three-course workload prescribed by CUE.
At Tom Mboya University, some lecturers are handling as many as eight courses in a semester.
The demands do not end in the classroom. Lecturers have to teach large groups of students, administer continuous assessments, mark the work, prepare examinations and mark examination papers.
Those teaching science subjects also have to supervise practical experiments and assess laboratory reports.
Uasu says removing experienced academics under these circumstances could put even greater pressure on the remaining lecturers and leave some departments without enough staff to run their programmes.
The union has also questioned the timing of the PSC directive, arguing that universities require experienced academics as they work to meet staffing needs and preserve the quality of their programmes.
Lecturers further maintain that their career path is not the same as that of other civil servants.
Uasu says university academics typically spend many years studying before entering the teaching profession. A prospective lecturer would ordinarily complete an undergraduate degree, a master's degree and a doctorate before taking up an academic position.
As a result, many enter university teaching in their late 30s, meaning they begin their academic careers later than workers in many other professions.
The union is therefore asking the Court of Appeal to put the new retirement rules on hold as it challenges the earlier court decision and seeks to prevent its members from being forced out of employment while the matter is still before the courts.