Details emerged Tuesday implicating that sixteen public universities out of the current 33 are in deep financial crisis.

Vice Chancellors Committee on Tuesday said the institutions are unable to meet the basic salary needs of their workers and other obligations.

This means, the committee said, that they require immediate intervention, failure to which is highly likely to affect learning, even as lecturers downed tools protesting delayed implementation of 2017’s collective bargaining agreement.

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“Universities have huge financial challenges. We are unable to pay statutory deductions to the National Hospital Insurance Fund, National Social Security Fund and the Kenya Revenue Authority,” committee chairman Francis Aduol told the National Assembly’s Education committee.

Prof Aduol said public universities had turned to part-time lecturers to reduce the wage bill, who have not been paid since 2014.

“We are worried about the quality of education since going for part-time lecturers hurts standards,” Prof Aduol told parliament.