A meeting called by a section Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) officials to call off the ongoing strike ended in chaos with union officials exchanging blows.
Trouble started when a rival faction led by KNUN Chair Joseph Ngwasi invaded a live press conference that was being addressed by John Bii, who claims to be the union's chair. Bii was ousted as the union chair but moved to court and obtained an injunction quashing his dismissal, however, KNUN vowed not to recognise him and picked Mr Ngwasi.
Before the fracas, Bii had termed the strike illegal and accused a section of nurses' union officials of being used by politicians to settle political scores.
However, a rival faction led by the KNUN chair, Ngwasi dismissed Bii's team as imposters who are not part of the nurses union officials, accusing them of receiving money from undisclosed sources to call off the strike.
It emerged that the camp led by Bii that had called off the strike was made up of imposters who had been dismissed from the nursing profession.
Bii's team was evicted from Railways Club as the situation got nasty with blows and shoves flying across the room.
Police moved in swiftly to contain the situation as the rivals began exchanging blows.
The team, which identified itself as the legitimate leaders of KNUN, declared that the strike is still on until all issues raised by the union are addressed.
Secretary General of the Union, Seth Panyako was not at the event during the exchange. However, his deputy John Opeto represented him at the event and dismissed the rival camp as imposters.
Panyako later took over the press conference and reiterated that the strike was still on.
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