Nurses' strike: Uhuru's return-to-work deadline lapses

Most nurses in counties hit by their ongoing strike did not report to work despite an order by President Uhuru Kenyatta that they resume work by yesterday morning.

In an address from State House, Nairobi after a meeting with Council of Governors last Wednesday, Mr Kenyatta directed the Health ministry and county governments to fire nurses who defied the directive.

On Friday, the Kenya National Union of Nurses (Knun) Secretary General Seth Panyako maintained that the strike was still on.

LAY OFF

“The status quo is maintained. None of our members is at work. We have had a successful peaceful demonstration in Embu County,” said Mr Panyako.

“It is very unfortunate that we have to put Kenyans in such a situation but we have to also remain firm and fight for what is rightfully ours,” he said.

But even as the stakeholders engaged in a flurry of meetings to break the impasse, Labour Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani maintained that the conciliation talks were on and that all the stakeholders are meeting today (Saturday) with a view to coming up with a solution.

“After the meeting, we shall have ten days to run through all the issues and file a report in court,” said Mr Yatani.

He revealed that on Monday, both the parties would appear in court to argue their cases.

He, however, maintained that striking nurses who ignored the presidential directive to resume duty Saturday would be laid off.

“We live in a state in which the rule of law must be obeyed. No one has an option. The parties are in contempt of the court order. They should review and go back to work,” said Mr Yatani, adding that the contentious Collective Bargaining Agreement signed in 2017 was illegal as it did not involve all key stakeholders, making it difficult to implement.

DISRUPT

Despite the fact that county governments have now resorted to contracting nurses to attend to patients, most hospital wards remained closed.

A spot check by Nation in public hospitals revealed that most of the wards including those in national hospitals remained closed. At the National Spinal Referral Hospital and Mathare Hospital, there was no nurse on duty when we visited.

Kisumu County Hospital was also deserted and only one patient with her two babies occupied the surgical room that has 25 beds.

Services at the facility were paralysed with only a few nurses employed on contract spotted trying to curb the situation.

Kisumu County government said it had turned to hiring nurses on contract to solve the crisis. Chief Officer for Health and Sanitation Steve Sewe said out of the 18 nurses who came for interviews only five nurses were qualified for the positions.

Six out of nine wards at the Homa Bay County Referral Hospital remained closed in the wake of the nurses’ strike. Only three wards which are being operated by two non-governmental organisations were open. They are currently housing patients suffering from HIV/ Aids and tuberculosis.

In Nakuru and Kakamega, nurses have maintained that they will disrupt operations in all public hospitals in the counties from February 18, if the county administrations will not heed their demands to implement the return-to-work formula.

MANDATE

Knun’s Kakamega branch secretary-general Renson Bulunya said President Kenyatta overstepped his mandate when he issued the executive orders because the strike is being handled by the counties’ public service boards.

“In Kakamega, we shall go on strike from Monday (February 18) on the premise that by the time the orders were released, we had no dispute with our county government and the court orders did not affect us,” he said.

His counterpart in Nakuru, Ms Syprene Odera said that nurses will not report to work on Monday.

Nurses in Embu County also maintained that they will continue boycotting work until their demands are met.

However, nurses in Kirinyaga and Migori counties have resumed duty after they signed a return to work formula with their respective county governments.

Reports by Angela Oketch, Elizabeth Ojina, George Odiwuor, Shaban Makokha, George Munene, Vivere Nandiemo and Kevin Rotich