Court orders Kirinyaga Governor Waiguru to reinstate 32 sacked doctors

The Employment and Labour Relations Court has ordered Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru to reinstate all the 32 doctors who were dismissed in June 2019.

This follows an application filed by the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU).

KMPDU previously lodged an appeal with the Public Service Commission (PSC), which held that the doctors should be reinstated by the county government.

The order was however never implemented, prompting KMPDU to proceed to make an application at the Nyeri court.

“On the application of KMPDU, the decision by the Public Service Commission made vide letter dated 14th April, 2021 reinstating into service the applicants is hereby recognized, adopted and enforced as a judgment of the court,” ruled Justice D.K Njagi Marete on September 16, 2022.

Waiguru also early this year found herself in trouble with stakeholders in the medical sector after announcing that she had reinstated 72 suspended health workers into the payroll and renewed contracts for 388 others.

She further claimed that she had agreed to pay their salary arrears dating back to 2019 when they had been suspended following a strike by medical workers.

Kirinyaga branch’s nurses union however later came out to dismiss Governor Waiguru’s claim that the 72 health workers had been reinstated.

The union, instead, the county boss had only paid the 72 health workers who had been working for three years without salaries.