Nurses in Kenya have threatened to undergo another strike which will effectively cripple operations in 35 counties from the evening of Monday the 12th Of August 2019. The decision is as a result of delays in the payment of their July salaries.
The Secretary General of the Kenya National Union of Nurses Seth Panyako, made it known on Thursday the 8th of August 2019, that only health workers in 12 of the 47 counties in Kenya, have been paid.
The Secretary General Seth Panyako stated that, “We have declared total war with these counties if they do not pay nurses by close of business on Monday 5pm. None of the health workers will go to work.”
Mr. Panyako reportedly put the blame of the impending strike on the Council of Governors (CoG), accusing it of misleading governors on the payment of salaries and remittance of union fees.
The Secretary General also accused the chairman of the Council of Governors (CoG) Wycliffe Oparanya (Kakamega), of misguiding governors and poor leadership stating that, “Oparanya has paid nurses in his county yet he is urging the other counties not to pay. Kakamega County remitted the salaries on Thursday morning yet Governor Oparanya has issued a letter of ‘press for hard times’. What kind of leadership is this?”
Seth Panyako added that the Council of Governors (CoG) Chairman is “continuously hoodwinking and misleading governors because the healthcare system in his county will be running smoothly as the rest run in havoc”.
The counties which have paid their health workers are, Bungoma, Garissa, Kajiado, Kakamega, Kiambu, Kisii, Kwale, Mombasa, Nairobi, Tana River, Turkana, and Wajir.
County governors were accused by the Secretary General of duping Kenyans by continuing to seek treatment outside the country, while leaving the healthcare systems in counties in mayhem.
Seth Panyako said, “The strike will cause the grounding of every service, including ambulances, but these governors will seek private healthcare out of the country or in expensive hospitals, leaving ‘Wanjiku’ languishing because the whole system will have been brought to a halt.”
The Secretary General also dismissed claims that the counties do not have money for salaries, stating that, “We all know that when there is a stalemate in the budget, 50 per cent of it is released to counties for recurrent expenditure and emergencies. So 50 per cent of the budget is available.”
President Uhuru Kenyatta has however maintained that the National Treasury has no extra money for counties.
The President while responding to demands by governors and senators for more money, told counties to work with what they were allocated earlier.
