Relief for Kenya’s health sector as nurses call off their five-month strike

Nurses in Kenya ended their five-month-old strike that had paralysed the health sector over delays to implement the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

This move came after the Council of Governors (CoG), Ministry of Health and the Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) signed a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

Speaking at Delta House after reaching an agreement to end the strike, Kenya National Union of Nurses (Knun) Secretary-General Seth Panyako apologized to the general public for the prolonged strike which exposed patients to more pain and suffering.

“With the powers conferred to me by the nurses’ union constitution and the labor laws, I hereby declare that the strike that had begun on 5th June 2017, is officially called off and our members are advised to go back to work with immediate effect and those who can’t make it resume work by Friday 3rd, 2017,” said Panyako.

He further called on the government to continue engaging the union in future to avert any industrial action that can endanger the lives of Kenyans.

“It was not our intention to have them suffer due to a nearly collapsed healthcare system when the nurses were on strike. We hope that such thing will not be repeated in the near future. We wish to engage with the government to avert any industrial action that can endanger the lives of Kenyans,”

According to the CBA, the union wanted the least pay for a nurse to be KSh52, 000, up from KSh38,000 while the highest paid to receive KSh130,000 from KSh70, 000.

Further, they had demanded for risk allowances of 15,400 shillings per month, extraneous allowances of 5,000 shillings per month and uniform allowance to be increased to 50,000 shillings per year from the current 10,000 shillings per year.

Health CS Cleophas Mailu and Turkana Governor Josephat Nanok who were present during the signing of the MoU emphasized on the effectiveness of dialogue to end any disagreement.
“Once again I thank the union for agreeing to sit down and talk and now we have reached an amicable solution,” Mailu said.
The Government had earlier threatened to sack striking nurses claiming the impasse was not lawful. “The nurses’ strike is illegal. It is notable that the nurses went on strike while the negotiations on their CBA were taking place.