Busia Governor Sospeter Ojaamong has disclosed that his government has advertised for positions of doctors, nurses and clinical officers after futile efforts to have the healthcare workers resume duties.
Addressing mourners during the burial of John Kennedy Okada, 51, at Kidera village in Teso South Sub County on Wednesday, Ojaamong said as governors, they have resolved to employ new health workers to save suffering Kenyans from health workers who have refused to heed to their calls to resume duties as talks to end the impasse continues.
"Striking workers in Busia had no reason to go on strike but they defied in "solidarity" with their colleagues in other counties which have not met the conditions their union leaders put on the table for the national government to fulfil," he said.
He noted that some counties have not paid salaries of their employees for several months, a big contrast to his government which has paid healthcare workers to date, telling the workers that they will have themselves to blame if the county would have hired enough workers when return to work formula is reached.
"People have soiled my name for allegedly failing to meet health workers demands yet my government has met the lion's share of the bargain to warrant industrial action from the workers," he emphasised.
The County Chief said people look for greener pastures if what they earn from their current stations is not commensurate with their professionalism, citing his profession as a teacher when he had to call it quits due to poor remuneration then.
Eulogizing his confidant whom they tarmacked together in Nairobi until he (Okada) got a job at the Nation Centre at his expense in the 1990s before flying to the US for greener pastures, the Governor said the late Okada will remain his best friend posthumously.
He enumerated many projects in Teso South including the Sh69m elevation of Amukura health centre to Sub County Status, the murraming of Kidera-Kwangamor road under the fuel levy programme among others.
