Doctors and nurses will at the end of May receive their salaries and allowances for the 100 days they were on strike. This comes two months after signing the ‘Return to work formula’ in March.
On Wednesday, Kisii Governor James Ongwae said county governments had received the money from the Ministry of Health.
Mr Ongwae, the chairman of the Human Resource, Labour and Social Welfare Committee at the Council of Governors, said counties had been waiting for the money from the Health ministry and will now disburse it at end of the month.
“Doctors should not worry because at the end of this month, their money will have been disbursed,” he said.
Governor Tharaka Nithi, Samuel Ragwa also assured doctors in his county that his administration was processing the salaries and that they would be paid out by end of the week.
The county boss said governors were willing to pay doctors as stated in the return-to-work formula but they were yet to receive the money.
On Tuesday, Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu showed a Sh3.2 billion payment made to county governments to pay the salaries.
The ministry also allocated an additional Sh1.73 billion to cover allowances for about 24,000 doctors.
Dr Mailu also issued a directive to counties to pay doctors their salaries, including those that were withheld when they were on strike.
Governor Ongwae acknowledged that most counties had received the money.
This comes after the president’s directive to pay the striking doctors. County bosses through the Council of Governors’ Chairperson, Peter Munya, had firmly opposed the directive, saying that they were not going to pay for the days they had not worked.
