Nairobi health workers call off strike following a court order

Major General Mohamed Abdalla Badi- the Director-General Nairobi Metropolitan Services. [File, Standard]

NAIROBI, KENYA: Health care service provision in Nairobi hospitals has resumed after health workers called off their strike following a court order.

The Kenya Health Professionals Society (KHPS) on Thursday announced a suspension of the health workers strike that has been going on since Monday.

The medical practitioners took to the streets protesting delayed promotions and re-designations accusing NMS of violating their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

They were also outraged for being dragged into the supremacy wrangles between City Hall and the NMS.

This is after the Employment and Labour Relations Court on Tuesday suspended a strike notice issued by the medical practitioners under the Kenyan National Union of nurses (KNUN), Kenya union of clinical officers (KUCO) and three other unions that were calling on the Health workers to picket/ demonstrate at the KICC buildings as from November 1,2020.

Lady Justice Maureen Onyango issued the orders after the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) filed an application. She directed that the matter be heard inter parte on November 11th, 2020 together with a similar case involving the Kenya medical practitioners pharmacists and dentists Union (KMPDU) against NMS.

“In the meantime, the strike notice dated October 16,2020 calling upon members of the respondents to picket/demonstrate at KICC building starting 1st November 2020, is suspended pending inter partes hearing of this application,” read the court order.

The workers, through their Kenya Health Professionals Society, consequently wrote to the Mohammed Badi-led NMS, communicating their resolve to obey the court order albeit on condition that their grievances are addressed.