Nandi health workers defy return to work formula
Health workers in Nandi have defied the return to work formula by the county government of Nandi until their demands of promotions and salary arrears which were promised after signing an MOU with them are accomplished in full.
Led by the officials from the Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) John Bii the National chairman and Amos Ng’etich the county secretary, they vowed never to resume their duties until their rights are tackled well.
They claimed that they had obtained a waiver from the public service board demanding for their immediate award of promotions and payment of their salary arrears for those confirmed from the Economic Stimulus Programme( ESP) but the county government under the leadership of the Governor Dr. Cleophas Lagat turned a deaf ear to their demands on grounds that health workers in Nandi are quacks they don’t have papers to deserve promotions and are not computerized.
Dr. Bii said majority of health workers in Nandi have no knowledge on computer simply because majority of them do technical works which does not need computer knowledge thus the county government should not use that as a platform of not wanting to a ward them their dues.
He insisted that the scheme of service is a policy document under the National government and the work of the county government is to implement it fully.
“County government is incompetent, it can’t manage the health sector because it has been misappropriating funds meant for the health workers.” He said.
This comes a few days after the county government of Nandi had advertised 191 job positions for health workers to replace those striking a situation which has paralyzed health services for the last two weeks leading to loss of lives.
Since the strike began a total of 5 people have died a situation which forced an angry public on Monday to match to the hospital demanding the health managers to assist in offering the health services to patients.
The CEO for Health in Nandi Dr. Edward Serem and his chief officer Dr. Daniel Kemboi offered services at Kapsabet Referral Hospital where a few patients who turned up were given out patient services.
