Nurses issues countrywide strike notice in January

The Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) Secretary General Seth Panyako was with KNUN officials when they were addressing journalists during the burial of the late Eliazar Mumbo at Kakwa Jwok village in Karachuonyo Constituency. Panyako has issued a 21 day strike notice over what they termed as frustrations by the Government [James Omoro, Standard].

The Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) has issued a 21-day strike notice to protest against alleged mistreatment by the government.

According to KNUN Secretary General Seth Panyako, the government is discriminating against nurses in the country and has declined to improve their working conditions.

Speaking during the burial of the late Eliazar Mumbo at Kakwa Jwok village in Karachuonyo Constituency, Panyako accused the Kenya Kwanza administration and county governments of demotivating nurses.

Panyako who was accompanied by his deputy Maurice Opetu, KNUN Secretary in Homa Bay Omondi Nyonje, and Trustee Lilian Ogutu, claimed both the county and national governments have failed to address their concerns.

Their issues include failure by county governments to implement a recommendation of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) circular of nurses' salary increments. The percentages of the salary increment vary according to one's job group.

The nurses want their colleagues who were employed through Universal Health Coverage (UHC) confirmed into permanent and pensionable terms.

According to Panyako, a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) should apply to nurses in the country.

He said all nurses should be treated as workers who were seconded to county governments, not as county government employees.

This will enable commonality in implementation of a CBA signed by the union. They argued that the disparity in the CBA implementation had seen nurses working in county governments stuck in tire 21 in grading while their counterparts in the national government are in tire 17.

"It does not make sense that nurses in county governments are still stuck in tire 21 yet the current CBA states that all nurses who were seconded to county governments should be in tire 17," Panyako said.

Opetu argued that nurses who were seconded to the county government should not be treated as employees of the counties.

"It is wrong for county governments to expect us to go to every county to sign a CBA for nurses. We want the CBA signed centrally at the Council of Governors so that it is applied across all counties," Opetu said.