- This could paralyse health services in the entire county should the county fail to act on the nurses' grievances.
- Delayed promotions and poor working conditions are some of the issues the nurses want addressed.
Image: GEORGE OWITI
Nurses in Machakos County have issued a 21-day strike notice over what they termed as unfulfilled promises by the county government.
The nurses threatened to down their tools across the county beginning July 24, should their issues remain unresolved.
This could paralyse health services in the entire county should the county fail to act on the nurses' grievances.
Delayed promotions and poor working conditions are some of the issues the nurses want addressed.
“Our strike notice is in regards to issues we have had since last year. We appreciate the efforts the governor made last year by promoting us," Michael Saka said.
"A number of us were promoted while the majority of nurses who were promised promotions which were to take place by January haven’t gotten them as they were never effected,” he said.
Saka is the Kenya National Union of Nurses, Machakos branch secretary.
They addressed the press in Machakos town on Thursday.
The nurses addressed the notice to the county secretary and copied it to various relevant individuals including Governor the governor and the county health executive.
“Currently, we have more than 1, 000 nurses who have never been promoted for the last seven years. We are asking our governor to do so expeditiously. Promote nurses who are due for promotions and pay us arrears which are due for us as she had promised last year,” Saka said.
He said that currently, a total of 1, 015 nurses are due for promotions.
Saka further noted that they also want the county government to hire more nurses.
He noted that despite seeing allocations towards the expansion and construction of health facilities and conversion of some health centres into Level 4 hospitals, only a few nurses are being employed.
He said most nurses were leaving the country in search of greener pastures in the diaspora yet no replacements had been made by the county for the last three years.
“More than 250 nurses have left this county, none has been replaced. We are seeing health centres being put up, no single nurse has been employed. More than 300 of our members haven’t gone on leave for the last two years. This is unfair, kindly address the issue,” Saka said.
He further noted that even though some of their members had gone back to school and specialised, none had been re-designated in the county.
“We have ICU and renal nurses. The county government should look at the human resource aspect as one of the major pillars of healthcare delivery in this country,” Saka said.
The nurses said they were entitled to a Collective Bargaining Agreement and hence wanted theirs to be signed, registered and implemented.
“Otherwise, from July 24, we are also sharing these with residents from Machakos, Makueni, Kitui, Kajiado and Nairobi who seek our services here, especially at Machakos Level 5 hospital, we will close shop, there will be no work,” Saka said.
They said the strike will have an impact on level five to two health facilities in the county.