The nationwide nurses’ strike that began Monday this week will subject Kenyans to suffering if it’s not resolved quickly by the concerned authorities. The nurses have downed their tools demanding the signing and implementation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that will see their salaries and allowances increased.
The strike comes two months after the doctors’ strike which lasted for 100 days leaving patients to seek medication in private health institutions and others dying because they couldn’t afford the high cost of medication in private hospitals.
The blame game witnessed by key stakeholders in the industrial dispute pitting the Council of Governors and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) will only catalyze the problem and lead to prolonged suffering to Kenyans who are not ready to experience the tragedy they underwent during the doctors’ strike.
Nurses play key roles in health institutions that include taking care of patients, administering drugs and offering ante-natal services. Consequently, all the stakeholders in this dispute including the Council of Governors, Salaries and Remuneration Commission, Ministry of Health and Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) should urgently convene a roundtable meeting to resolve the crisis in order to save Kenyans from undue suffering.
Efforts by Labour Cabinet Secretary Phyllis Kandie to meet the CoG to resolve the dispute are commendable but it seems they have hit a deadlock as the nurses have ruled out further talks on the industrial dispute lodged at the Ministry of Labour and insisted they will only be involved in talks leading to CBA.
It is for this reason that the country’s leadership led by President Uhuru Kenyatta should personally intervene and spearhead negotiations on resolving the nurses’ grievances to come up with a permanent solution as its the duty of the government to ensure all Kenyans have access to medical services.
Our leaders cannot continue moving in different parts of the country politicking and asking for votes while Kenyans die mercilessly due to lack of medical services at public hospitals.