Mombasa health workers told to resume work or be sacked

Striking health workers in Mombasa have been warned to return to work with immediate effect or face disciplinary action as they have already been paid, the county government has said.

The warning was issued Wednesday by acting Mombasa County Health Executive Tendai Mtana.

The warning came as the workers remained adamant that they would only resume duty after they had signed a return-to-work formula that assures them that their allowances that were not included in the July salaries will be paid.

Mombasa Kenya National Union of Nurses (Knun) branch secretary Peter Maroko said the return-to-work agreement will also assure the union members that they would not be victimized for striking.

“You cannot just end a strike like that. We need to sign an agreement that will assure union members that their deducted monies will be paid and they will not be victimized for participating in a strike,” Mr Maroko said.

But Mr Mtana said that they had acknowledged that they erred in not including the workers' allowances in their current pay and that they had agreed to pay them in their September salaries.

He accused the health workers of being stubborn for refusing to return to work, calling the move selfish.

“We have been able to confirm that 95 per cent of the striking workers had received their salaries for the month of July by August, 22.

“We are pained by what is going on and as the heath executive I will be forced to take disciplinary action on this matter,” said Mr Mtana during a press briefing at his office in Mwembe Tayari.

He noted that they would follow the laid-down procedures in effecting the sackings if the doctors fail to resume duty.

“When the health workers whose salaries we are paying refuse to return to work, we are holding them responsible for the health crisis in our county. We paid their salaries and they should be at work today,” he added.

He accused the striking doctors of defrauding Kenyans by not reporting to work after they were paid, adding that they were taking advantage of the situation to operate their private clinics.

“We have started receiving reports from members of the public that some of our doctors are running their own private clinics,” he added, stressing that they had put up an inspectorate unit to establish who the doctors are before action could be taken.

He further said that medical supplies had also been purchased.

The workers had blamed lack of these supplies for hampering the provision of services. Following the purchase, the doctors had no excuse for failing to work, Mr Mtana said.

He said that the county government was not obligated to absorb the nurses who were hired under the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) and who have also been striking. He said the nurses under ESP were under the national government.

He said that the salary delays would become a thing of the past if President Uhuru Kenyatta immediately assented to the Division of Revenue Allocation Bill.

Sadly, as the blame game between the striking workers and the county government continues, patients admitted to the county’s largest referral facility have resorted to "treating" one another as doctors and nurses stayed away.

The entrances to the hospital remained locked and patients who reported there for services were turned away by security guards.

Joseph Ngumbao and Granton Mndenyi, who are both accident victims admitted to the male ward at Coast General Hospital, said that they had resorted to cleaning each other’s wounds, which they said were rotting as a result of not being attended to for two weeks now.

“No doctor has come to see us for two weeks now. Some come and mock us by telling us, “Si mulitaka devolution” (“You wanted devolution see the impact now”),” said Mr Mndenyi.