Roundup: Confusion lingers as Kenyan nurses call off strike

Kenyan nurses have called off their strike after week-long talks with government and Council of Governors after the Health Ministry agreed to increase nursing allowances on Sunday.

However, the Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) leaders differed on the status of the industrial action that has caused deaths, agony and misery to millions of patients across the country in the past one week.

The standoff which pits KNUN chairman John Bii, deputy secretary general Maurice Opetu and Assistant Chief Trustee Alice Oreng against Secretary General Seth Panyako, caused confusion on whether the strike was over or not.

A faction of nurses union led by deputy secretary general and chairman on Sunday signed 700 million U.S. dollar duty resumption agreement with Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu and Council of Governors Health chairman James Ongwae.

The KNUN Chairperson John Bii later suspended the strike and urged all nurses to resume duty with immediate effect.

Under the deal, both parties have agreed that there shall be no victimization or disciplinary action against KNUN members who took part in the industrial action that commenced on Dec. 5.

The health ministry and KNUN officials said the signed agreement will be harmonized with the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) once registered in court.

According to the agreement, nurses in Job Group G-L will receive a top up of 200 U.S. dollars and those in Job Group M and above will get 150 dollars from January 2017.

The payment will be administered in two phases in the proportion of 60 percent and 40 per cent in the months of January 2017 and July 2017 respectively.

"On our part we undertake to continuously engage with all parties to ensure that medical services resume to normalcy across Kenya. We appeal to our doctors to come back to the negotiation table and reconsider the offer we granted them," Mailu said.

Ongwae said the CBA will be executed by all County Secretaries and Chairmen of the Public Service Board on Dec. 14.

"We shall continue to engage the Union to avert any future strike and ensure Kenyans get services uninterrupted," he argued.

The union officials said the agreement was signed between the national and county governments and the nurses and would form part of the collective bargaining agreement that would be formulated within two months effective January 1, 2017.

"We felt that we would not hold this country comprising of 40 million Kenyans at ransom simply because one of us does not want to sign the agreement that we negotiated and agreed upon," said Bii.

However, KNUN Secretary General Seth Panyako denounced the announcement to end the nurses' strike by his deputy and his chairman and urged nurses to stay away from work.

Panyako who insisted the strike is still on, called on nurses to ignore the statement issued earlier by the two union officials, noting that the only organ mandated to issue such a statement is the union's national governing council through the secretary general.

He told journalists in Kakamega in Western Kenya that the three KNUN leaders including Assistant Chief Trustee Alice Oreng, who had called off the strike, had been compromised by the government and had no authority to speak on behalf of nurses.

He stated that the national governing council of the union will be meeting on Monday to discuss the agreements reached between the union and the government and thereafter they will issue a statement on whether they will call off the strike or not.

Meanwhile, Panyako on Sunday recalled ten nurses back to work at the Naivasha Level Four Hospital to assist victims of the tanker tragedy. He said that even though medics are currently on strike, they cannot put the lives of the public in danger.

"We cannot put the lives of the public in danger during such emergencies. Therefore, we recall ten nurses to Naivasha Level Four Hospital to immediately assist the affected victims," he said.

"We still persist with our strike, and I have only recalled nurses. But the governing council is the only one that can call off the ongoing strike," he noted. Endit