Busia County nurses have joined their colleagues in other parts of the country on strike to protest the failure by the County government to honour the agreement they entered. The County Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) secretary Dr. Isaiah Omondi told journalists in Busia town that they have been forced to down their tools after the County government of Busia failed to reach out to them for negotiations on how it would settle the issues they raised, “We have started our strike after a notice we issued to the County government on 2nd February expired without us hearing anything from them.”
Omondi, however, said they are ready for negotiations with the County government to agree on how their demands will be met, “If they pay us now we will return to work immediately, if they do it tomorrow we do the same. As you can see we are ready for negotiations. We waited for the Governor to come and have a talk with us but he didn’t turn up,” he said.
However, Busia County Governor Sospeter Ojaamong and his Deputy Moses Mulomi have said they are ready to pay the nurses and buy them uniforms, but they have to go through the required procedure, “We have not refused to pay nurses, it’s just that the procedure we have to follow is the one which is long and tedious. We have agreed to pay for their uniforms and we appeal to them to resume work as we find ways of meeting all their grievances within sixty days,” he said.
According to Omondi, 540 out of 565 nurses in Busia County are taking part in the strike.
Meanwhile, patients across the county have started to feel the pain of the strike as they are not able to get medical services in the County hospitals and health centers.
