Nurses dig in, fault SRC and governors over stalemate

Kenya National Union of Nurses now says that the ongoing national strike by nurses will continue until their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is officially registered in court and implemented.

The union Secretary General, Seth Panyako, is accusing the county and national governments of lacking the goodwill to resolve the stalemate.

Addressing journalists on Saturday, September 23, Panyako has also launched a scathing attack on the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) for doing a shady job, rejecting the recent final job evaluation report released by the Sarah Serem-led commission.

“The national government, county government, SRC and treasury are not interested at all to solve the health crisis. We have gone for 200 days with complete shut-down of health facilities. Our leaders are busy politicking,” said Panyako.

According to Panyako, no nurse was represented in the SRC meetings and that the commission has discriminated against them, as all the recommendations that were made by nurses through stakeholder meetings were not considered.

This comes a day after the Council of Governors (CoG) Chairperson, Josphat Nanok, issued a directive for all governors to sack all nurses who according to the council “are engaging in an illegal strike”.

The strike by nurses is now in its 110th day.

It is a different story in Nandi, however, as nurses returned to work after the county government assured them that each will receive a promotion letter before the end of the week.

Governor Stephen Sang said that he is not among county bosses who will heed Council of Governors directive on Friday, September 22, to sack all striking nurses.