40 healthcare workers stationed at the Mt. Elgon Covid-19 isolation centre in Trans Nzoia have gone on strike accusing the County
government of failing to address their grievances.
They said they’ve been subjected to a harsh working environment with inadequate supply of personal protective equipment (PPEs) and have not been paid their allowances like their colleagues in other Counties.
“Our colleagues who are handling Covid-19 patients are not even given food and other essentials forcing them to mingle with the public in search of the basic commodities, which is risky,” said the Trans Nzoia branch secretary of the Kenya National Union of Nurses Willy Sifuna.
Sifuna wondered why their role in the war against the Coronavirus has been overlooked by the County government, to the point that they haven’t been factored in the County budgetary allocations geared towards fighting the pandemic.
“The welfare of the healthcare providers is not taken seriously by those in charge of the health docket in Trans Nzoia. We have therefore
decided to keep off and advised them to evacuate the three Covid-19 patients at the facility,” he noted.
They also pointed out the failure by the County government to put up a temporary residence for medics at the former Doctors Plaza as a threat to the health and wellbeing of the people they come into contact with.
“Medics handling Covid-19 patients are not supposed to mingle with other people including their families but this is not the case with
Trans Nzoia since we have been told there is no money to that effect,” said the Union’s branch chairman Edwin Cheruiyot.
The chairman of the Trans Nzoia County government workers union Samuel Kiboi called on area Governor Patrick Khaemba to institute radical within the health docket to guarantee efficiency.