• All unions, from doctors to lab technicians, on strike in public facilities.
• Demand better conditions, sanitation, hiring more doctors and nurses, better equipment, promotions, rehiring laid-off casuals handling sanitation. Claim colleagues have contracted diseases.
Health services in all public hospitals in Kirinyaga were paralysed on Wednesday after health workers walked off the job to protest what they called deplorable working conditions and poor sanitation.
Central Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union secretary general Gor Goody said the health workers will not resume duties until the county meets their demands.
These include hiring more doctors and nurses, promoting members, equipping hospitals properly and hiring casual workers.
"We have been trying to reach Governor Anne Waiguru for dialogue but she ignored us. That is why we have had to take industrial action as a last resort," Goody said.
The health workers from the KMPDU, the Kenya Union of Nurses, the clinical Officers Union and the Laboratory and Technicians Union said they are working under intolerable conditions.
Some colleagues have contracted diseases such as hepatitis B due to poor sanitation at the Kerugoya Level 4 Hospital, they claimed. It was not possible to confirm this independently.
Goody said the unionist will not sit back as their members are intimidated and threatened when they demand quality working conditions. She said the county has not promoted anyone in two years.
''Poor working conditions lead to poor treatment of our patients. We demand the county improves working condition, equips our hospitals and motivate the staff so that patients get quality services,'' Goody added
Problems in the Kirinyaga health sector began on April 20 when the county laid off 346 casual workers in the health sector, leading to poor sanitation.
The Senate Health Committee toured the facility and later Kirinyaga Senator Charles Kibiru said they were not satisfied with the feedback from senior county health employees on the Kerugoya Level 4 hospital.
Waiguru said the problems at the hospital were a result of collusion between six senior staff in the health department and her rival to sabotage her work.
She invited the DCI to investigate her claim of sabotage so that those responsible are held to account.
Last week, the unions gave the county a seven-day notice to act on their demand.
But county secretary Joe Muriuki obtained a temporary injunction from a Nairobi court on Friday, pending the determination of an application filed by the county.
Goody led the health workers through the streets of Kerugoya town, causing traffic jams.
She said the union had not been served with any court order, hence, the industrial action is legal.
''We have not seen any court order and our lawyers have been to court and established that there is none. Our strike is legal," Goody told journalists.