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By Joseph Muchiri
Embu, Kenya: Hundreds of health workers from all Government hospitals and health centres in Embu County downed their tools and held a peaceful demonstration to protest their delayed salaries and allowances.
The health workers who included doctors, pharmacists, nurses, physiotherapists, clinical officers, records staff and casuals employed by the county stormed the county headquarters to demand their dues Monday.
They complained that they had been reduced to paupers and were finding it hard to meet their financial needs yet continued to work daily.
The workers, who have been on a go-slow for the last few days, said the delayed pay has led to Saccos and banks penalising those with loans for defaulting.
Kenya National Union of Nurses Embu Branch Secretary General Joseph Ngwasi said that over1,600 health workers in the county have not received their February salaries while some had not been paid for January.
“As per the Constitution, the salary of a seconded officer cannot be altered to their disadvantage, but in our case it has been done. How can we work when our rightful dues are denied? We won’t resume work until the money is put in our accounts,” he said.
He said the nurses in dispensaries under the Economic Stimulus Programme had not been paid from December.
Kenya Clinical Officers Steering Committee Chairman Aloysius Njoka claimed the county had no director of medical services to look at their issues, as the previous one had left following Governor Martin Wambora’s impeachment.
Wambora’s impeachment
Embu County Chief Officer in charge of Administration Tim Gutettah attributed the delay to a hitch in devolving of the payroll whereby special allowances for health workers were not reflected.
He said they had agreed with health officials that they would be paid their January salaries minus the allowances, and the allowances would then be lumped together with February salaries.
“We had only requested for money to pay the older staff. To pay the staff in devolved ministries, we wrote a supplementary budget of Sh4 billion which was not immediately approved by the county assembly following Wambora’s impeachment,” he said.
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