Nurses, clinical officer interns to be paid reduced stipends

New nurse and clinical officer interns will be paid reduced stipends in line with a court ruling made last week, the Ministry of Health has announced.

Public Health PS Mary Muthoni said only medical interns will await negotiations on their stipends as directed by the courts.

In a letter to Public Service PS Amos Gathecha, Muthoni said they will pay the rest of the interns in accordance with the stipends stipulated by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) in March.

“On account of the judgment, we are proceeding now to pay Bsc Nursing, Bsc Clinical Officers and Clin- ical Officers (Diploma) interns as per the SRC circular. The rest of the interns represented by KMPDU [medical officers, dentist and pharmacist] will await negotiations as directed by the court,” Muthoni said in the letter on November 7 to PS Gathecha.

“The purpose of this letter therefore is to request for new designation codes for Bsc Nursing, Bsc Clinical Officers and Clinical Officer (Diploma) to reflect the stipend rates as approved by SRC vide the attached circular to enable us proceed with payment of their stipend.”

According to the SRC circular in March, clinical officers (diploma holder) interns would receive between Sh27,000 and Sh35,000 while degree clinical officer interns will receive between Sh35,000 and Sh50,000.

Nursing officers (degree) interns will receive stipends of between Sh35,000 and Sh50,000, while dental officer interns will receive between Sh47,000 and Sh70,000.

Pharmacist interns and medical officer interns will get between Sh47,000 and Sh70,000.

The amount of remuneration in the second letter was a revision from the first, which proposed a pay of Sh25,000 for clinical officer (diploma holders) interns. There are currently 1,210 medical, dental and pharmacist interns in Kenya.

There are 145 degree clinical officers, 1,270 diploma clinical officers and 1,283 nursing officer interns.

The Kenya National Union of Nurses is still insisting on a higher stipend for its interns. Secretary General Seth Panyako last week wrote to Health CS Deborah Barasa asking for at least Sh74,000 for each nursing intern after deductions.

“While we understand this is a temporary solution, we encourage that we continue to engage on the same in addressing the intern compensation issue until a long-term solution is found,” he said.

SRC chairperson Lynn Mengich in March said all stipends were revised downwards due to affordability, sustainability, fairness and equity.

She said the highest-paid intern in the government currently receives Sh25,000.

"You can’t take interns and give another category a salary because Sh206,000 is actually the entry point pay of doctors who have completed their internship.The fact that it happened in the past does not make it right,” Mengich said.

The chairperson highlighted that this is not a reduction since those affected are interns who have just graduated from university and hence are not earning any amount.

“The first thing is to clarify that there is no reduction because you cannot reduce what you don’t have. What we have set is a new stipend for interns that are just being posted so the issue about reduction is not correct because you only reduce what you already have,” Mengich clarified.

However, she said those interns who were currently earning a different amount at that time would not be affected by the changes.