Medical services have been paralysed in Kakamega and Kisumu counties as the nurses' strike enters its second week on Monday.
The nurses have withdrawn services to push for the signing and implementation of their CBA by the Council of Governors and the SRC.
Relatives of those admitted in public hospitals are taking them to private facilities. In Kakamega, patients have been taken to Mukumu mission hospital in Shinyalu subcounty and St Mary's Hospital in Mumias.
The Kakamega government has served nurses with a return-to-work notice, saying they will be sacked for participating in an "illegal strike".
"Note that your refusal or negligence to resume work will result in disciplinary action, including and not limited to summary dismissal," reads the notice by county health executive Penina Mukabane dated June 8.
But nurses union secretary general Maurice Opetu said they will not return to work until the document has been signed.
"The strike is legal. We had an agreement with them in the return-to-work formula signed on December 14 and we agreed if the CBA is not negotiated and signed on March 2, nurses will proceed with the strike," he said on Monday.
Kakamega branch secretary Renson Bulunya also rubbished the notice.
"This is nonsense ... We know the next step [is to tell us] we've all been sacked," he said.
In Nairobi, members of the Kenya National Union of Nurses took to the streets saying they will present a petition to Health CS Cleopa Mailu.
They carried
banners representing several other counties including Kisii and Machakos.
Members of the Kenya National Union of Nurses march on Nairobi streets in a push for the implementation of their CBA, June 12, 2017. /LEWIS NYAUNDI
Salaries and Remuneration Commission chair Sarah Serem has disowned the CBA, saying governors sidestepped her advice on the nurses' demands.
But she said there is no dispute between nurses and the government.
As the strike went on last week, in various hospitals countrywide.
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