DEAL! Nurses, gov’t strike deal to end week-long strike

After six days of pain, misery and deaths, there is hope to end the nurses’ strike after the government and the health workers reached a deal.

The Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) chairman, John Bii, says they have reached a deal with the national and county governments on the way forward.

Speaking to Citizen Digital on phone Saturday evening, the nurses’ union chairman said they had agreed on a pact with the government and the details would be made public on Sunday, December 11.

A similar announcement was made by the Cabinet Secretary for health, Cleopa Mailu on the same evening.

This followed just hours after nurses’ union Secretary General, Seth Panyako, announced that the strike would continue, further accusing the government of insincerity and sabotaging the negotiation process.

Panyako had also announced that nurses still offering services at the Kenyatta National Hospital would join the strike on Tuesday, December 13, completely shutting down all services at the country’s largest referral hospital.

The strike, since its commencement on Monday, December 5, has been viewed as the worst in the country’s history as it involved both the nurses and doctors.

Talks between the unions and the government had collapsed more than thrice with government being forced to deploy the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) doctors to Kenyatta National Hospital to attend to emergency services.

The medics went on strike following the failure by the government to fulfill a 2013 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that among other things agreed to give them a 300% pay hike, recruit more nurses and doctors to reduce the current doctors to patients ratio that stands at 1:16,000.

On Thursday, December 8, the medics declined a deal by the government awarding them a salary increment of between Ksh 32,000 and Ksh 46,000.

On Friday, President Uhuru Kenyatta urged the striking doctors not to make innocent patients suffer as the government worked to resolve the issues they had raised.

He called on the doctors to have a spirit of understanding and look after the lives of their patients as the dispute is resolved.

“I am very hopeful that by the end of the day we should have an agreement. We need to work together because we do not want Kenyans to suffer,” said the President when he addressed doctors at the Kericho County Hospital.

The President said that he was optimistic a solution will be reached that recognizes the important role doctors and nurses play.

Healthcare professionals, who are not members of the nurses’ or doctors’ unions, demanded all inclusive talks with health workers countrywide.

While addressing the press in Nairobi on Friday, December 9, the 17 cadres of healthcare professionals accused the government of favouring doctors and nurses in strike negotiations.

“We are not second class citizens, we are all equal and we should be treated equally,” said the healthcare professionals.

The medics had also threatened to paralyse health services in all public, private and mission hospitals on Tuesday if no deal is reached between them and the government by Close Of Business (COB) on Monday, December 12, the Jamhuri Day.

Cases of desperation and misery had set in with patients being left unattended, others turned away, while others were forced to go back home despite the magnitude of their sicknesses.

On Wednesday, the doctors’ union, Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU), walked out of talks with the Ministry of Health with the union demanding revocation of  Labour Court’s ruling summoning them for defying its order.

KMPDU Chairman, Samuel Oroko, said there would be no dialogue between the doctors’ union and the government until the court order is lifted.

The Employment and Labour Relations Court had directed the doctors’ union officials to appear in court next Tuesday to show cause why they should not be committed to civil jail for disobeying court orders.

The Saturday evening announcement is a relief to many patients and their caretakers who had been left hopeless and staring at death with wide-open eyes for lack of medical attention.