Kenya’s healthcare sector faces the prospect of further paralysis if the nurses union follows through on its threat.
The Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) has issued a one-week ultimatum to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to implement the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) signed in 2017.
According to KNUN Secretary-General Seth Panyako, the union will join doctors in a strike if the CBA is not implemented.
The union cited the government’s delay in implementation as the reason for its decision to take stern action.
Panyako stated that the government had also been changing its tune on employee engagements without informing the nurse leaders, a move they are condemning.
Consequently, the leaders lamented that they were forced to relay the changes in their salaries to their members painting them in a bad light, having not been consulted by the government.
According to KNUN, different government institutions were also working in contradiction of each other and later disrupting the health sector.
“We have no trust in the government, it must work as a joined institution, it can not work as a disjointed institution, the human body must work in unison, I am very much afraid that this government is letting us down,” stated Panyako.
The ultimatum comes at a time when doctors failed to sign an agreement that would see the striking medics return to work after a two-month strike.
In the growing stalemate between the government and the medics, the doctors declined to sign the agreement on Friday after a settlement on the payment of interns was not reached.
While the government failed to disclose the unresolved issues, it was stated that the doctors had issued new demands and stalled the progress of negotiations.
Further, the doctors dismissed the reports of the collective agreement being reached stating that the news was illegitimate.
