The Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) Nairobi secretary Boaz Onchari has insisted that nurses in Nairobi won’t call off their strike until their grievances are heard. Nairobi nurses joined nurses from other 18 Counties on Monday as they went on strike, and by Tuesday mid-morning, some County governments had penned agreements with the nurses to end the strike including Mandera, Kiambu, Tharaka Nithi, Nyandarua, Nyeri, Kitui and Vihiga.
However, speaking outside the office of Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko after holding peaceful demonstrations on the second day of the strike, Onchari said Nairobi nurses won’t loosen their grip and will continue to seek an audience with Governor Sonko to outline their grievances, even if it means doing the same routine for fifty days, “We won’t stop coming here until Governor Sonko talks to us and tells us how he intends to enact our CBA so that we can go back to work,” he said.
He revealed that last year they had prepared meetings with the County government but they never materialized. He said they sent letters to the Labour Ministry and explained their problems. The first meeting was meant to be held on 9th November but the other parties didn’t turn up, and the same happened in two other planned meetings on 23rd and 29th November last year. He said the one who was given the responsibility to lead the negotiations didn’t have any other option but to exit the scene since he had tried his best but the nurses’ employers weren’t willing to sit down and talk.