Service at public health facilities in Siaya county have ground to a halt after nurses downed their tools, accusing the county government of failure to implement several agreements with their trade union, the Kenya National Union of Nurses and Midwives. Led by the KNUN Siaya branch officials, the nurses demonstrated along the Siaya town streets before storming the county government headquarters. Addressing the media, the officials led by the branch executive secretary, Kennedy Hamisi lamented that the executive had failed to implement a return-to-work formula signed before the Kisumu labour court in June this year. According to Hamisi, the agreement saw the nurses suspend and industrial action, giving the executive time to address their issues. “However, the return-to-work formula clearly stated that the strike shall resume if the county government will not have addressed the issues by 20/7/2026” said the secretary. Among the issues that they want addressed, said the secretary, are payment of salary arrears and remittance of statutory deductions to the relevant bodies. “We have colleagues whose pay-slips indicate that they finished paying their higher education loans board (HELB) loans in 2023 but they are still being deducted” said Hamisi adding “when they go the HELB offices, they are told that the employer has not remitted their deductions. He said that this time round, the nurses are convinced that the executive cannot be trusted and they will continue with the strike until all their demands are met. The union treasurer, Roseline Oywer accused the county government of failing to implement the third phase of their salary increments as ordered by the salaries and renumeration commission. “We want the county government to implement the third cycle of the SRC arrears and also implement the fourth cycle” she said. KNUN Siaya branch chairman, Dennis Omollo called on the executive to address the acute shortage of nurses that was affecting the quality healthcare provision to the Siaya residents
Comment here