Services paralysed as Homa Bay county workers strike over pay

Services were paralysed by workers’ strike at the Homa Bay County government offices on Tuesday.

The area Kenya County Governments Workers Union officials said they would not resume duties until their July salaries were paid.

The Union Chairman Kennedy Okumu and Secretary Meshack Onyango said the county government had failed to pay them their salaries.

“We gave the county a strike notice which expired on Monday but they have not replied. We have downed our tools from today,” Okumu said on Tuesday.

Onyango argued that many county government employees were undergoing financial problems resulting from delayed salaries.

“County government workers cannot meet their daily needs because of delayed salaries. Let them pay us,” said Onyango.

A similar complaint was also raised by the chairman of the Kenya Union of Civil Servants Chairman Tom Akech.

Akech said their members who work in the county government would not report to work until they are paid.

“I urge the county government to pay workers so that they return to work,” Akech said.

Workers in at least 20 counties are expected to go on strike today to protest non-payment of July salaries.

The strike is expected to disrupt crucial services, including in health facilities, as the standoff between national and county governments over sharing out of revenue persists.

Kenya Union of Clinical Officers, Kenya National Union of Nurses, the Kenya National Union of Medical Laboratory Technologists and Kenya National Union of Pharmaceutical Technologists are some of the unions whose members are expected to stay away from their workstations to protest salary delays. 

The strike will affect services in Murang’a, Laikipia, Isiolo, Marsabit, Kitui, Meru, Tharaka Nithi, Bungoma and Kisumu.

Other counties where the workers had issued a strike notice are Homa Bay, Machakos, Nyeri, Taita Taveta, Kericho, Elgeyo Marakwet, West Pokot, Nakuru, Baringo, Samburu and Embu.