Elgeyo Marakwet County government has begun disciplinary action on the 380 striking nurses in the region.
Addressing the press on Monday, Deputy Governor Wesley Rotich stated: “We have established the situation is bad, the county will fire the nurses and hire others to restore health services."
He pointed out that the status of the health sector in the County had worsened as most nurses had failed to report to work due to the ongoing nationwide strike.
“It is not our wish to initiate disciplinary procedures against our nurses, but patients have suffered, and the hospitals can’t operate without nurses," Rotich stated.
The deputy governor further indicated that the county government had been forced to recruit volunteer nurses to help patients in critical conditions.
He went ahead to dismiss the allegations that the new employees are not qualified.
“We cannot endanger the lives of our people by hiring quacks,” he stated.
Nonetheless, the county secretary of the Kenya National Union of Nurses Ben Biwott told the nurses to ignore the show cause letters issued by the county administration.
“Counties picked nurses fresh from college in the name of volunteer nurses. The volunteers are now messing up operations because experienced nurses are not on duty to guide them," noted Mr Biwott.
In the Coast region, individuals in need of medical services have been forced to seek treatment in Tanzania as hospitals in Taita Taveta and Kwale Counties remained grounded.
The hospitals are not operating due to the ongoing nationwide strike which has paralyzed most health services for over three months now.
