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Nurses in Homa Bay have threatened to down their tools if their grievances are not addressed.
Through their union, the Kenya National Union of Nurses and Midwives (KNUNM), the nurses have threatened to go on strike from Wednesday next week.
The acting KNUNM secretary in the county, Emmadick Okeyo, and the deputy chairperson, Brenda Peterson, outlined various issues they want the county government to address.
Okeyo said the county government had not promoted them from one job group to another according to their previous agreement.
He said none of them had been promoted since they signed the promotion agreement about five months ago.
“We agreed that 386 nurses were to be promoted, but this has not been done to date,” he said.
The medics also want their employer to remit their statutory deductions in good time. These include medical insurance, such as the Social Health Authority (SHA) and loans.
“The delay in remitting statutory deductions leads to penalties by financial institutions that lent us money. The same applies to SHA because we cannot get medical care unless it is paid in time,” Okeyo said.
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They also want the county to employ 150 additional nurses to decrease the workload.
Okeyo said they had given their notice to the employer.
“We have given the notice so that our grievances can be addressed. We are waiting for the response of the employer that will determine whether we are downing tools or not,” Okeyo said.
Peterson said they are not going to be patient again if they fail to get a convincing reply.
“We have been patient, and that is why we are voicing our grievances today. Some of the nurses have not been promoted for more than ten years,” Peterson said.
Homa Bay County CECM for Health Mercy Osewe said they were working on the nurses' grievances.
“We are addressing the nurses’ issues. We are promoting them as we agreed with them earlier,” Osewe said.
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