• On Tuesday, the union gave the government 48 hours to ensure the agreement is signed in full, otherwise, they will withdraw services in all health facilities.
• Nurses, lab technicians, medical clinicians are on strike; most doctors settled.
Image: WILFRED NYANGARESI
It's almost back to square one in the healthcare crisis afflicting the country.
Most nurses walked off the job on December 7. They are still out.
They were joined by clinicians, doctors and now lab technicians. Most doctors settled but other health staff are still absent or on go-slow.
Clinicians say the Council of Governors hasn't signed their return-to-work agreement.
And less than a week after calling off their strike, clinical officers have resumed work boycott again after failing to reach an agreement on the signing of their return-to-work formula.
The clinicians' union has been battling with the Council of Governors after the county bosses backed out of the agreement, barely a week after ordering members to resume duty.
On Tuesday, the union gave the government 48 hours to ensure the agreement is signed in full, otherwise they walk out again.
The ultimatum lapsed on Thursday.
The clinical officers had called off their strike on January 1 but now claim the agreement is yet to be fully signed. The CoG was supposed to sign the document on Monday but failed to do so.
“We haven’t moved yet, they are still promising but nothing substantive yet, we have no option,” Kenya Union of Clinical Officers secretary general George Gibore said.
“When you ask someone to climb up a tree then you cut the tree, the tree for the clinical officers to go back to work has been cut down so we go back to the starting point,” he added.
The union has accused the CoG of being insincere and unrealistic by saying that the return-to-work formula be signed at individual counties yet acknowledge the ongoing conciliation at the Labour ministry.
“We know the language they understand best, and we are more than ready to speak that language. We have the energy, we have the zeal and we have the psyche to engage them through that language," Gibore said.
Kenya National Union of Nurses secretary general Seth Panyako said no agreement has been reached with the nurses union either.
Though he didn't elaborate, reports indicate the decision by the COG to backtrack on its agreement contributed to the nurses union backing away.
The nurses have been on strike since December 7. Early this week, the union was optimistic that a solution would be reached before the end of the week, which now seems to be a pipe dream.
Panyako said only nurses in counties that have met their demands will be allowed to resume duty.
“We want to be told those nurses who have died when the medical cover is not in place, what happens to them? What about those nurses who are admitted in hospital, they have died and we have contributed to pay their medical bills?
"We want those monies we have paid those hospitals refunded and given to the families left behind.”
So far, 34 nurses, 13 doctors and nine clinical officers have died of Covid-19, with at least 3,050 having been infected while on duty.
The CoG on Monday bolted out of the return-to-work formula signed by the doctors' union claiming the counties have no money to implement the agreement.
The Council of Governors on Monday said the issues raised in the RTWF have huge monetary implication that have neither been factored into the current budget nor the forthcoming financial year budget.
They said a special conditional grant must be allocated to each county to implement the demands.
On Wednesday, lab technologists joined in the strike over similar grievances: lack of personal protective equipment, hiring of more officers, demanding for risk allowance and delay of payment of their members in some counties.
(Edited by V. Graham)