Nurses in Mandera suspend strike after talks with county officials

Nurses in Mandera have suspended their strike after agreeing with the county executive on how to settle their grievances.

Without any signed deal between the two parties, the Kenya National Union of Nurses (Knun) Mandera chapter chairman Abdirahman Haji said they agreed to wait for the passage of 2020/2021 budget by county assembly.

“We had a meeting with the county government officials and we agreed to wait for 2020/2021 budget to be passed by the county assembly because we were told that our grievances are addressed in it,” he said. 

He maintained that the strike was only suspended on a gentleman’s agreement following the revenue division battle at the senate.

“Nurses understand that there is a push and pull at the senate over the allocation of funds to counties and we have given the county government some more time,” he said.

According to the local Knun official, the local administration has promised to promote 206 nurses in the first phase.

“They told us there is a package for specialised nurses and clinical officers in this year’s budget and for that reason we agreed to suspend the strike,” he said.

Mr Haji said they were also informed on the negotiating table that Governor Roba has formed a taskforce team to look into nurses and other health care workers’ affairs in Mandera.

“It is our hope that immediately the budget is passed, the county executive will implement all this so that we don’t call for a strike again,” he said.

A hopeful Mr Haji said Knun believes the Monday agreement was not another trick pulled on nurses by the county executive.

The executive promised healthcare workers a better medical cover immediately the county budget is passed.

According to Mr Haji, the county executive only showed Knun official a list of nurses to be promoted.

Mr Mohamud Adan Mohamed, the county executive member in-charge of health said medical services were going on uninterrupted in Mandera.

“There has been nothing like a strike in Mandera as purported in media but we have had a cordial meeting just like before and every department is functioning at the moment,” he said.

He said the thorny promotion issue will be tackled through the county public service board in a professional and non-partisan manner.

“Since advent of devolution staff were promoted and some were promoted one job group and some two job groups ahead based on years they had stagnated before devolution,” he said.

Mr Mohamed said the county government has constantly been promoting its staff and the latest promotion was early this year.

“We have done mass promotions and those yet to be promoted are being processed as per human resource policy,” he said.

On the contagious comprehensive medical cover for health workers in Mandera, Mr Mohamed said the cover has been offered but the administrators will keep reviewing the same.

The Knun official had reported conducting fund raising to carter for medical bills of their members in Mandera.

Mr Mohamed called on residents of Mandera to continue coming to the facilities across the county for medical attention arguing that no medical staff was on strike.