The government has moved to avert a planned strike by nurses that is threatening to paralyse provision of health services in public hospitals.
Nurses in various counties will on Monday next week down their tools to protests what they termed as unfair labour practices by both the national and county governments.
Anesthetist nurses will also follow suit on January 19 over unfair labour practices.
By Thursday, many county governments had reached out to their respective county union officials and agreed on the issues and have so far postponed the strike.
On Friday, Kenya National Union of Nurses general secretary Seth Panyako confirmed that the government, through the Ministry of Health, has convened a meeting to discuss the pending issues of the universal healthcare coverage and anesthetist nurses.
“The ministry has called us for a meeting on Monday at 2pm,” Panyako said.
“Many counties have also reached an agreement and have postponed [the] strike.”
KNUN will on Saturday give a detailed list of counties where agreements have been reached and the industrial action called off.
Some of the nurses’ demands include the implementation of the 2017 collective bargain agreement that the government has failed to honour.
The health union wants nurses working under the UHC to be absorbed into permanent and pension- able terms.
KNUN also took issue with continued insistence by authorities to have anesthetic nurses work under doctors when they are the ones doing the bulk of the work.
While backing the planned nurses strike, National Nurses Association of Kenya president Collins Ajwang said the government must honour its part of the bargain.
“We support the position taken by the Kenya National Union of Nurses and call on all the nurses to down tools from Monday until their demands are met,” NNAK boss said.
The leaders were speaking at Nurses Complex – NNAK headquarters – on Friday. The threat is coming days after clinicians also issued a 14-day strike notice over unmet demands.
Kenya Union of Clinical Officers said their members would keep off their workstation from January 19, until their issues are addressed.
“We demand full implementation of the RTWA [return-to-work-agreement] by the Ministry of Health and all 47 county governments before 19th January 2025,” Kuco secretary general George Gibore.
“Failure to address these demands will leave KUCO with no alternative but to invoke Article 41 of the Constitution of Kenya, together with relevant legal provisions, and commence industrial action starting at midnight on the 19th of January 2025."