Nurses' strike enters crucial week as SRC, CoG meetings offer possible breakthrough

The nurses’ strike enters another week, the national union maintaining it would not flinch.

The Kenya National Union of Nurses and Midwives (KNUNM) yesterday dismissed claims by some county officials that the industrial action has been called off.

Deputy Secretary General Maurice Odhiambo said the strike, which began on July 29, remained firmly on course until the union’s demands are addressed and implemented. He said only the General Secretary Seth Panyako has the authority to call off a national strike.

The union said the responsibility for resolving the dispute now rests largely with the Council of Governors (CoG) and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).

Odhiambo said the two institutions should sign and implement the CBA already concluded by the central negotiating team comprising the union and CoG, before taking it to SRC for a letter of no objection.

Officials of the union are scheduled to meet the SRC chairperson tomorrow, while the CoG is expected to meet on August 6 to consider the proposed Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

The two meetings could determine whether some of the longstanding grievances that have kept nurses away from hospitals finally move from negotiations to implementation.

But while the engagements could provide a breakthrough, Panyako has warned that nurses will not return to work on the strength of promises alone.

The union also wants Universal Health Coverage (UHC) workers transitioned to permanent and pensionable terms, with Odhiambo saying funds for the process had already been allocated.

At the centre the meetings is the union’s demand for SRC to issue a letter of no objection to facilitate implementation of the nurses’ 2017 Return-to-Work Formula.

Panyako said the union has for years been frustrated by what it considers  SRC’s failure to approve agreements negotiated between nurses, the national government and county governments.

He said the union also expects to raise the remuneration of nurses working in national referral and other state-owned teaching and referral hospitals, including Kenyatta National Hospital, Kenyatta University Teaching and Referral Hospital and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital.

The meeting comes as the union seeks to address what it considers one of the biggest obstacles to implementing its agreements.

Panyako said progress had already been made with county governments on the monetary component of the proposed CBA, including the 2017 Return-to-Work Formula and improvements to risk allowances and therefore they are expected to consider the agreement on August 6.

If approved, the CBA could address some of the financial grievances at the heart of the strike. But Panyako has made it clear that this alone would not be enough to send nurses back to work.

“The strike will only end when we see a letter of no objection from SRC. Even if the Council of Governors passed that CBA on 6th, we will not go back to work,” he said.

This puts the two meetings in a delicate position, with governors expected to deal with issues within the counties’ mandate while SRC holds the key to the approval the union says it needs before ending the strike.

The nurses’ demands extend beyond the 2017 agreement. They are also pushing for implementation of nursing career guidelines, which it says have not been fully domesticated by county governments, as well as the absorption of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) workers into permanent and pensionable terms.

Panyako said there had been progress on the UHC issue, with funding already provided for and the Ministry of Health moving towards placing the workers on permanent and pensionable terms.

The union also wants the government to address staffing shortages, with plans to recruit 5,000 additional nurses and according to Panyako, the new recruits should be employed on permanent and pensionable terms to avoid creating another group of nurses facing employment uncertainty

The pressure to resolve the dispute has grown as the strike continues to disrupt healthcare services in counties.

Panyako said about 40 of the country’s 47 counties were already participating in the industrial action, with the remaining seven facing leadership challenges within their union branches.

In Siaya, the disruption has been particularly severe, with all public health facilities shutting down after nurses joined the strike.

KNUNM Siaya branch secretary Kennedy Hamisi said Siaya County Referral Hospital, Bondo sub- county Hospital and Usigu sub-county hospitals, as well as health centres and dispensaries had ceased operations.

The shutdown has left residents who rely on public facilities, including patients living with chronic illnesses struggling to access routine treatment.

The situation illustrates the wider effect of the strike, which has not affected all counties in the same way.

While some facilities have been forced to shut down or significantly scale down services, others have continued operating by deploying alternative staff.

At Mbagathi County Hospital in Nairobi, about 70 nurses have joined the strike, but the facility has continued providing services through doctors, pharmacists and nurses engaged on a local basis.

Hospital pharmacist Dr Pius Kinuthia said the hospital was still receiving patients and referral cases, although the facility could not fully replace the nurses who had walked out.

The different experiences across counties nevertheless demonstrate the central role nurses play in healthcare delivery.

Panyako said nurses account for about 80 per cent of services provided in health facilities, making their absence difficult for other cadres to absorb.

“Nurses cover 80 per cent of all the work and the services that are given to the facility. There’s not a single patient that will go to a hospital and fail to pass through the hands of a nurse,” he said.

Kisii County also presents another complication. Panyako said nurses in the county would remain on strike even if the national demands were resolved until 46 nurses dismissed by the county government in 2021 were reinstated.

This means that even a breakthrough at SRC and the CoG may not immediately translate into the restoration of services in every county.

For the union, however, the immediate focus remains on the national issues that have brought nurses across the country into industrial action.

His remarks came after Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir directed the immediate recruitment of 573 nurses on contractual terms.

Nassir said on Thursday that more than 1,000 people would apply if vacancies were advertised, arguing that there was no shortage of nurses in Mombasa.

Odhiambo said the government should instead focus on resolving the grievances that have disrupted health services.

The union said the strike would continue until the CoG and SRC act on the outstanding issues.

“We reassure our nurses and the public that the strike is on until the Governors and SRC act,” Odhiambo said.