Eldoret — The management of Moi University has announced that they will lay off a number of their staff as part of measures of cutting cost, following financial woes bedeviling the institution.

The institution's Vice Chancellor Isaac Kosgey through a notice issued on Monday said that they did not have any other option as the wage bill which has been increasing has become unsustainable.

The VC explained that currently the varsity's wage bill is taking up to 70 per cent of the capitation allocated by the government.

"With the continued decline of revenues, the university is unable to sustain the growing wage bill and, as such, it has become necessary to undertake right sizing of the human resource to ensure sustainability of the university and operations," stated Prof. Kosgey.

The internal memo said that some members of its staff should be prepared for some compulsory redundancies.

It is reported that the institution has at least 10,000 staff members.

"This is therefore, to notify you of the impending redundancy of staff due to the continued strain by the university to fully fund its wage bill, and to align the human resource to the existing workload," he stated.

In 2021, Moi University admitted that it was insolvent, with a debt which had accumulated to more than Sh4.5 billion.

The Auditor General's report of 2020 indicated that the university's revenue for the year ended June 2020 was Sh7.8 billion against an expenditure of Sh 8.3 billion, therefore recording a deficit of Sh 504 million.

The report attributed the situation to reduction in income from privately sponsored students and reduction in students qualifying to join universities.