Kisumu county health workers have given a 30 days strike notice to the county government should they fail to address their grievances.
The healthcare service providers including the Kenya National Union of Nurses (Knun), Kenya Union of Clinical Officers (KUCO), Kenya National Union of Medical Laboratory Officers (KNUMLO) and Kenya National Union of Pharmaceutical Technologists (KNUPT) jointly issued the notice on Wednesday morning.
They want the county government to address issues on the promotion of health care workers, Staff shortages, irregular and discriminatory terms of employment and issues of Supply of Pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical products to facilities.
Led by Kisumu county branch KUCO Secretary Craus Odhiambo and chairman Vincent Owaa, they threatened to down tools after the notice period elapses and the county government fails to address their outstanding issues.
"Unless the county government of Kisumu moves with speed to quickly address the following issues that have been pending for the longest time, we will proceed on strike," Owaa said.
Odhiambo noted that the healthcare workers will boycott duties until their demands are met while blaming the county administration for being non-committal to tackle their longstanding grievances.
He claimed that most health facilities in the county are faced with a crisis of medical supplies, a situation which is threatening their normal operations.
"Many facilities luck even very essential but cheap drugs like Panadol, non-pharms such as gloves, or even syringes to give injections. Health workers have been turned into shop attendants, whose only roles are to direct patients to go buy this and that and that. We are no longer providing services because we have no tools of the trade," he said.
They want the county to provide for the facilities' non-pharmaceuticals and pharmaceuticals to enable them to work in a better and safe environment.
On promotions, they appreciated the county government for promoting some 293 HCWs after a very long protracted negotiation that even involved the courts and several strikes since 2019.
They however reminded the County that because of these delays, they have another backlog since the lot that was promoted in 2017 is also due for promotions since July last year.
"We demand that all those people who were promoted and all who qualified for promotion to the list of promotion which in our opinion should be done by June this year backdated to September last year," Odhiambo noted.
The officials also accused the county government of intimidating union officials and victimising members who participate in union activities.
They claimed that recently, the name of one of their union officials was dropped from the promotions list despite him deserving and meeting all the criteria used.
"The county government of Kisumu has even gone further to deploy intimidation tactics in employment by warning that anyone who joins the union should not be contracted. This is very archaic and in complete contravention of the constitution. Sometimes we see the things that this government do and wonder if the people giving it legal advice attended any law school," said Odhiambo.
Owaa asked the county government to prioritize the development of the health sector in order to enhance service delivery.
He claimed that the health sector within the county remained neglected despite good pre-election pledges made by governor Anyang Nyong’o that aimed at its transformation.
The officials further demanded that the administration pay the January and February salaries in the month of February to all members who have not been paid.
They further demanded converting of all the current contracted staff into Permanent and Pensionable.
"Further employment should be according to SRC guidelines, with all accrued gratuity paid to date. Failure to meet these demands will leave us no option but seek redress using the law, and that includes industrial actions such as a strike, in one month’s time," they stated
