Crisis looms in Kisii as health officers issue strike notice
Stethoscope. Courtesy photo
Doctors, nurses, and clinical officers in Kisii want the County to meet part of its bargain in a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) signed a few years ago.
The CBA, inter alia, pushes for improved working environments for the health staff and their promotions.
Respective cadre union officials Aggrey Orwenyo (KMPDU), Victor Bwanchete (KCU) Moses Rianga (KNUN), among other officials, said they are already spoiling for an industrial strike.
The strike kicks off at the elapse of a 14-day notice issued Wednesday.
The protest, stated the officials, is aimed at pushing Kisii Governor Simba Arati led administration to implement the contents of the CBA, the officials told journalists.
"It is pity that none of the meetings we have held with the relevant agencies here is bearing fruits. The option now left is calling for a strike," stated KMPDU Regional Branch Executive Aggrey Orwenyo.
An earlier strike resulted in the signing of a return to work formula which entailed the undertaking of promotions and salary increments but which Arati has reneged on implementing .
The timelines for the CBA closed on September 1, 2024, with Mr Orwenyo saying they have not received any communication if the County was committed to meet its bargain.
"We are still in the dark, as union officials we have explanation to give regarding the commitment or lack of it by the administration on the issue," Mr Orwenyo told journalists on Wednesday in Kisii.
Mr Victor Bwanchete described the silence from Arati's administration as “loud and strange”.
“The silence is grotesque yet what we urgently need are answers at the moment,” Mr Bwanchete stated.
He claimed county turned town the latest overture to talk on the matter thus making the call to start the strike tenable.
“It is pity that diplomacy was not being given its respect as it should," he said.
He said the county's failure to promote and redesignate clinicians was the source of the gripe.
He further railed the County accusing it of unprocedurally transferring clinical officers.
Some three(3) clinical officers had not been paid for over two years.
"How do you expect them to survive?" he posed.
Mr Moses Riang'a, branch Secretary, Kenya National Union of Nurses, said they had not been promoted since 2019.
The official said there was already a biting shortage of nurses in the county.
He challenged the county government to employ more health workers to foster health care services.
"The county should employ more than 1,000 nurses to fill the gap of those who have left due to poor payments," Mr Riang'a said.
He implored the government to pay nurses in time and remit their statutory deductions to relevant Government agencies to avoid inconveniencing them.
