Nurses in Trans Nzoia County call off their 44-day strike

Nurses in Trans Nzoia have called off their 44-day strike after the county government committed itself to fulfil many of the grievances that they hjad raised during their industrial action.

Kenya National Union of Nurses (Knun) county branch secretary-general Willy Sifuna said the county agreed to meet most of their demands after holding lengthy discussions to end the impasse.

“We have called off our strike after the county government finally agreed to what we have been agitating for since the day we downed our tools,” said Mr Sifuna during the signing of the return to work agreement.

Among the grievances that the county government agreed to meet is the promotion of deserving nurses to higher job groups by May upon presentation of their academic and work experience testimonials.

PROMOTIONS

“We want all our members who were due for promotion to be promoted without victimization. We also agreed that letters requiring our members to show cause why they had deserted duty be withdrawn,” he said.

The nurses also reached an agreement with the county government that there will be no more delays in the payment of salaries and remittance of statutory deductions to relevant agencies.

“The county government has also agreed to commit more funds to the purchase of drugs and non-pharmaceuticals in addition to hiring of more nurses to improve efficiency in service delivery,” said Mr Sifuna.

County Health Executive Officer, Dr Isaac Kogo, said all the issues that had been agreed on will be implemented within the stipulated timeframe to guarantee better healthcare.

“We want to assure the nurses that we will work towards the implementation of all that we have agreed upon to ensure that our health services run smoothly to the benefit of residents,” said Dr Kogo.