Nurses in Kisii and Nyamira counties have vowed to paralyse services in healthcare facilities over what they termed frustrations by their respective counties.

In Nyamira, the nurses officially embarked on their strike after a notice of 14 days they had issued to the Government expired Sunday night while in Kisii, representatives of the nurses vowed to boycott work from November 1.

The nurses from both counties protested poor working conditions, stagnation in job grades, delayed salaries and unimplemented collective bargaining agreements.

In Nyamira, healthcare services remained paralysed as the nurses went on strike, protesting unimplemented pay deals with the county governments.

No action

Nyamira branch Secretary of the Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) Bernard Kerosi said the health workers had issued a strike notice to the county government 14 days ago but there was no action from the county leadership.

“The issues that we have been raising are historic and for a long time now, the county leadership has not addressed them. All the time we have engaged the leaders, all that we’ve had are lies and more lies,” Kerosi said.

No pay for three months

According to Kerosi, the county had not paid nurses for about three months while others had been demoted in circumstances not well explained to them.

“It is saddening that the county has never considered nurses as important healthcare workers. Over the times we’ve only had doctors being promoted as hundreds of nurses languish in the same job grades,” Samson Mariba, the branch Chairman said.

In Kisii, Eric Rioba, the Branch Secretary blamed the County Government for failing to hold meaningful talks with nurses.

“The county leadership engaged us early in October over the issues we had raised and the time limits within which they had promised to act have lapsed without any action.