Court rules Economic Stimulus Programme nurses to keep working

Murang'a County nurses working under the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) have been directed to continue working on a contract basis for the next one month.

This directive was issued by the Court of Appeal sitting in Nyeri, which said it will rule on their permanent employment on August 1.

The appeal was launched by the county government against an earlier ruling by the Employment and Labour Relations Court, which had ordered that the 177 ESP health workers be absorbed on permanent and pensionable terms of service.

In the ruling Monday, Appellate judges Philip Waki, Roseline Nambuye and Patrick Kiage said the nurses should not  victimised, discriminated, or their contract terminated until the ruling was made.

It further directed the county government to file the appeal afresh within 30 days.

Meanwhile, Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) has been asked to consider withdrawing a case challenging employment of Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) teachers.

County Education Secretary Elijah Nguyo told the union to explore other mechanisms of resolving the matter out of court.

"Withdrawal is the only way to halt the teachers continued suffering, after their employment by the 47 county governments was stopped in April last year following a case filed by Knut," he said.

The secretary was speaking Monday when he launched a training workshop for ECDE teachers and overseeing distribution of learning materials to 800 centres. The workshop is courtesy of a partnership between the county government and Longhorn Publishers.

Suffering lot

Mr Nguyo said parents and children are also suffering as a result.

"Parents continue to bear the burden of paying teachers, when the county governments had embarked on their employment, which would have ensured better pay and terms for them.

"We are, nonetheless, looking for alternative legal ways of circumventing the order to bring this suffering to an end," he said.

The secretary said the county government is currently in the process of sealing gaps and challenges that exist in the sector such as employment and remuneration, capacity building, infrastructure and management, among others.

"In the year 2013/2014, the county government spent Sh7.5 million to improve infrastructure in some centres with work undertaken including putting up new buildings and renovating existing ones," he said.

Nguyo said the Government plans to spend an additional Sh10 million for similar works during the 2015/2016 financial year.

"In capacity building, we have trained 21 lead teachers through the assistance of Kenya School of Government (KSG) and another 90 teachers through Colgate Palmolive," Nguyo said.

He said the training is courtesy of an MoU signed by the county government and KSG which has diverse partners.