Are KNH nurses justified to go on strike after attack on one of them?

Let it be known that nurses are not on strike at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) purposefully because of the assault on one of our own. The assault only triggered what led to the downing of tools. The main reason is poor management of nurses at the facility, which has made them live like fugitives.

The management has declined to allow the nurses to join unions of their choice, contrary to articles 36 and 41 of the Constitution, yet doctors and support staff in the same facility belong to respective trade unions.

This condition has exposed nurses at the hospital to vulnerability and bullying from all quarters, the latest being assault by a relative of a patient.

Such vulnerability calls for industrial action, which the nurses at KNH have done to demand simple things. They demand that the KNH management allows nurses to sign an agreement to join unions of their choice and also (KNH) to commit to remit monies to such unions as labour laws require.

Trust me, nurses are the last people who want to see a patient suffering, but when you frustrate them the way KNH is doing, then they have little option but to down their tools. Let the KNH management learn from the example of the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, where nurses have the liberty to be in a union.

Granted, you will hardly hear about incidents such as a patient or his relative assaulting a nurse or even nurses downing tools demanding basic rights, as is the case at KNH. In that case the strike is justified.

Mr Panyako is the KNUN General Secretary