Nurses locked out of Murang'a hospital after strike

Nurses were on Friday stranded at the Murang'a General Hospital after they were denied access to their work stations.

The caregivers had resumed work after ending their five-month strike on Thursday but they were blocked following a directive from the county government.

35 HIRED

County Executive Committee Member for Health Joseph Mbai had instructed the hospital’s authorities not to allow any nurse who defied his earlier order to resume job enter the premises.

The health workers were denied access to the hospital because their vacancies were filled.

In September, Governor Mwangi Wa Iria hired 35 nurses for the general hospital in addition to the 35 who heeded his call to resume work.

Mr Mbai defended the move, saying the county had warned the striking workers to resume work or face the sack.

"We don't have any problems with those who adhered to our warning. For those who did not, we advertised for the vacancies and hired a set of new nurses so as to restore the services in all the public hospitals," Mr Mbai told the Nation.

The decision to fire the defiant nurses, he said, was reached by the county government and “it was irreversible”.

CASES

He said the county government could not sit and watch as Kenyans lost their lives due to the industrial action.

But the nurses’ union has vowed to fight for the rights of the affected nurses.

Kenyan National Union of Nurses (Knun) Murang’a County union chairperson Kenneth Kihato dared Mr Mbai to refer them back to the national government if he had indeed axed them.

"We had come to work only to be denied the access to our work station, and instead receiving a circular from Mr Mbai indicating that we are fired," Mr Kihato said.

The nurses’ union and the county government have been embroiled in court cases, with the nurses accusing the county for withholding their statutory deductions.

The fired nurses have a pending case on hiring of new caregivers against their employer.