Health staff strike to demand permanent jobs

Hundreds of contracted health workers in Murang’a County downed tools Wednesday to protest over county government’s failure to give them permanent jobs.

They gathered at Ihura stadium, where they also complained about poor working conditions and called on Governor Mwangi Wa Iria to look into the matter.

The protesters said they were employed four years ago under Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) but pledges by Mr Iria’s leadership to absorb them have not been honoured.

“The county government has been deceiving us for a long time by promising to absorb us but when our contracts expire, they dodge us,” Murang’a County Nurses Union secretary-general Christine Maina said.

HARSH CONDITIONS

The health workers, she said, have been treated unfairly by the Murang’a county government, and they cannot continue offering services under harsh conditions, including poor pay.

She accused Mr Iria’s leadership of receiving and sitting on a circular from Health Cabinet secretary James Macharia directing that all health staff hired under ESP be employed on permanent and pensionable basis.

“Other counties have already absorbed their ESP health staff but Murang’a County is not willing to do so,” she said.

“We are calling upon the governor to intervene and re-look into the matter failure to which we will call upon our (permanent) counterparts to join the strike,” she said.

The striking health workers want their salaries harmonised with those of their permanent counterparts among other demands.

UNCOOPERATIVE OFFICIALS
Economic Stimulus Programme representative Enos Githuga said efforts to have their voice heard have not borne fruit.

Some county officials, he said, have been very uncooperative and abusive to an extend of telling the workers that they are “a burden” to the county.

He said they met and held talks with a county official whom he did not name but gave up after the official maintained that the staff could not be hired because there are no funds.

He appealed to the county leadership to relook into the issue, noting that the striking health staff provide essential services to residents.

Murang’a Woman Representative Sabina Wanjiru Chege urged the county government to absorb all workers who had been employed under ESP.

After devolution, she said, county governments took charge of health matters in full and it is their responsibility to employ health workers.

She urged the county government to consult with the national government if it needs help to absorb the striking group.