Counties right in offering health workers better pay in corona war

Kenya’s health workers have been crying out to the government to ensure their safety as they tackle Covid-19. Yesterday, the number of confirmed cases hit 191, and as the numbers continue to rise, Kenya will depend heavily on health workers to counter the next phase of the pandemic.

Towards this end, some county governments have taken it upon themselves to look into the welfare of their health workers. An example is Machakos County which has from this month given health workers special allowances to cushion them against effects of the global health and economic crisis. It is therefore shocking that this good gesture has been condemned by the Salaries and Remunerations Commission (SRC).

Counties have priorities and the ones that have decided to focus on bettering the schemes of health workers should be encouraged. The SRC should not look far if it wants to stop payments that do not translate into quality services offered to Kenyans who have just seen for themselves that they need more health workers compared to politicians. The SRC must not be part of the system that has neglected healthcare for years. Indeed, this is the wrong time to pick a war with frontline soldiers and it is like mistreating military personnel when a nation is at war.

We therefore ask SRC, other State agencies and well-wishers to join all Kenyans and give moral, psychological and financial support to our health workers. It behooves SRC to wait until one war affecting everyone is won before they decide to pick another war – too many battles on several war fronts will only see the health workers stretched too thin and prevent them from working efficiently.

This will expose more Kenyans to the coronavirus, a situation no one wishes for. We categorically, as we have always done, state that coronavirus is the enemy and we should forget about our brinkmanship and authority for a moment and focus on it. History will judge us harshly if we do not work together in tackling this threat to humankind.