Nurses strike called off in Samburu County

Patients who have been suffering for the past two weeks due to lack of medical services in Samburu County have found relief after nurses working in the area called off their strike on Monday after striking a deal with the county government.

Kenya National Union of Nurses Samburu Branch Secretary Halima Letoluai said strike had been officially called off after the county government agreed to meet some of their demands.

“We have discussed and agreed with our county government that they will promote us, the nurses’ allowance will be handled by a negotiating team from Nairobi,” Letoluai said.

“Therefore I am happy to tell everybody welcome to Samburu County Referral Hospital, we have resumed work as usual,” she said as she expressed remorse for patients who had missed services during the strike.

Julius Lesee, the Deputy Governor and also the acting County Executive Committee Member in charge of health Services, said an advisory committee consisting of stakeholders from the health and finance departments, nurses union, Public Service Board and Human Resource Management would soon meet to discuss on how to immediately implement promotions of nurses.

“Some have advanced their careers through further education and as a county government we will look into their demands,” Lesse said.

“We already have a list of nurses who qualify for promotion but we are only waiting for an advisory committee to move forward,” he added.