Elgeyo Marakwet nurses protest in Iten, June 4, 2017. [Photo/the-star]
Elgeyo Marakwet County has been forced to deploy voluntary nurses from Iten Kenya Medical Training College to restore services in Iten County Referral hospital following the ongoing nurses strike countywide that has caused paralysis in many public hospitals.
The striking health workers want a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiated between the Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) and the government be signed and implemented.
The county government has, however, accused the nurses of going on strike starting Monday, without giving any strike notice.
County health executive, Thomas Ruto claimed the county’s secretary Benson Biwott deceived the public by purporting the county scrapped Sh20, 000 meant for nursing service allowance.
“It is quite dishonesty to claim that allowance was scrapped. It is only that the nursing service allowance was renamed health service allowance after other health workers demanded to be offered a similar allowance,” Ruto is quoted by the Star.