Nurses and clinical officers at the Kitui Level 5 Hospital on Friday boycotted work and staged a sit-in at Governor Charity Ngilu's office over delayed June salaries.
The hour-long protest began a few minutes to 1pm and dispersed shortly after 2pm after the medics were addressed by their union officials.
Kitui county Kenya National Union of Nurses branch secretary Newton Kimanzi and his clinical officers’ union counterpart Martin Mwangangi said the boycott will continue until members are paid.
They medics expected to be addressed by the governor but she was said to have travelled to Europe over the weekend.
Neither the deputy governor Wathe Nzau nor any top official at the governor’s office was available to address the group.
Kimanzi, however, clarified that the health workers were not striking and were only provoked to stage the sit-in because they had not been paid by Thursday despite a promise to do so.
He said workers had become disillusioned after money failed to hit their bank accounts as promised and no one was offering any explanation as to what was happening.
He said as soon as they were paid, they would resume duty and cease further protests.
“Our stand remains that if there is no money we will wait for it at home. Once the money is credited to our accounts we will go back to work,” Mwangangi said.
Kimanzi and Mwangangi wrote to Ngilu on Thursday announcing that their members would start holding a salary parade outside her office on Friday.
All Kitui county workers face the delay in June salaries following a dispute between the county assembly and the county government.
Ngilu on Tuesday moved to court to compel the assembly speaker George Ndotto to release a statutory letter that would allow the executive access devolved funds.
Three other unions representing county workers have opted to buy time till Tuesday next week when they will take industrial action if Ngilu’s administration will not have paid up.
“Health workers have jumped the gun. They should have waited until Tuesday next week when all workers will stage a collective strike and work boycott,” said Benedict Makuthu, Kitui branch chairman of the Kenya United Civil Servants Union.
(edited by O. Owino)
