Medics issue 18th May 2020 country wide industrial strike notice over better protection

Nurses issue strike notice for 18th May 2020. FILE

Health workers including nurses, clinical officers issue May 18 strike notice, demand better protection while doing Covid-19 work.


The Unions include; National Nurses Association of Kenya, Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN), Kenya Union of Clinical Officers (KUCO), Kenya National Union of Medical Laboratory Officers and the Kenya National Union of Pharmaceutical Technologists.

READ ALSO: KEMRI medics go on strike over unpaid allowances

There were some grievances that were forwarded to the Ministry of Health but CS Mutahi Kagwe gave a deaf ear.


“We gave the government a memorandum on the issues of risk allowance and job promotion. We are going to conduct a nationwide industrial strike on 18th May 2020 regardless of whether the pandemic is over or not," said Seth Panyako, the Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) Secretary-General.


The Unions issued a memorandum to the government to address the issues of promotion of health workers and the harmonization of risk allowances to Sh30,000 each. Currently, the allowances stand at Sh3,000 for nurses, Sh3,800 for clinical officers and Sh20,000 for medical doctors.


“Over 90 per cent of the officers leading the Ministry of Health are Medical Doctors. We want to insist that the Ministry of Health is for all health workers, "


"If the doctors continue to run Afya House, then let them change the name of Ministry of health to the Ministry of medical doctors. We cannot allow a situation where one cadre is enjoying everything at the expense of others, “argued Panyako. 

According to the Kenya Union of Clinical Officers (KUCO) Secretary-General George Gibore, the strike could be inevitable if the current government gestures are to go by.

He says the MoH has been giving a deaf ear to their demands.

 “We are gearing towards a strike. This is because the Ministry of Health has not been forthcoming with our demands. We had given them a chance to have an amicable solution to this problem,"  Gibore said.


"We have henceforth started the process of lodging a formal complaint with the Ministry of Labor to have the strike, “said George Gibore, KUCO Secretary-General.


The health workers under the umbrella of Kenya Health Professionals Society (KHPS) that is chaired by Mohammed Duba, had issued a statement decrying what they termed as poor working conditions.


 “Following President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive to the Ministry of Health to prepare a welfare package for all health workers, we expected to be consulted on some issues, "


" We are open for discussions on this matter since we are the people who understand what our members are going through during this period,” said Duba.