The Kenya Union of Clinical Officers (KUCO) on Tuesday demanded that Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru be held in contempt of court for failing to reinstate 49 clinical officers, despite a court ruling ordering their return to work.
The clinical officers union led by their chairperson Peterson Wachira and Secretary General George Gibore demanded that the Governor be arrested following her 'refusal' to readmit the officers.
This is despite the existence of two return-to-work orders by the court and the Public Service Commission(PSC), that ordered Waiguru to reinstate the officers who were fired.
''It must be noted that this is the third time that we are coming here and that there are no orders that are staying the orders of the court in Nyeri that enforced the orders of the Public Service Commission(PSC) saying that all the clinical officers that were previously dismissed, are reinstated in the service,'' Gibore maintained.
Union Chair Wachira urged the county boss to promptly address the issue, warning that clinical officers would cripple the county's health sector if the Governor continued to defy the court orders.
''I want to urge Her Excellency Governor Waiguru that she has fought a good fight for six years. She has managed to retain these people out of work. She is now completing her two terms and can only do the needful by obeying the court order,'' Wachira urged.
Additionally, the medics warned that if their demands were ignored, they would commence an industrial strike on Monday next week.
Furthermore, Wachira accused the governor of using delay tactics, pretending to address the issue during strikes only to backtrack once the protests ended.
''Next week on Monday night we are going to close down those health facilities because the employer is still playing the game of hide and seek,'' Wachira added.
''They only express the goodwill when we are on strike and when we walk out, they reverse on the same and they walk away.''
The 49 were part of 200 health practitioners from Kerugoya Referral Hospital, Kimbimbi, Kianyaga, Sagana, and other health centres who were dismissed in 2019 after demanding payment of their accrued salaries over several months.
This followed a prolonged strike that lasted for weeks, prompting the governor to follow through on her threat by dismissing them the same year.
Efforts by their union, the courts, and the Public Service Commission (PSC) have so far yielded no results, six years later.
