The government has instituted a conciliatory team to help end ongoing nurses strike that has paralyzed medical services in public hospitals.
This is following the failure of nurses to heed to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive to resume duty.
It’s reported that despite the President’s hard talk on the now 2-week old strike, the nurses didn’t report to work on Friday as ordered.
Addressing the press on Friday, Labour Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yattany advocated for dialogue in resolving the issues surrounding the medical practitioners.
Yattany appealed to the nurses to go back to work as the strike had far reaching effects on the innocent public seeking medical services from public facilities.
“My appeal to all to all stakeholders is to obey rule of law. We appeal to them to reconsider their position and go back to work”, he said.
The CS further revealed that the conciliatory team set up to resolve the strike had made good progress.
He said the team will be meeting the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) on Friday, February 15.
Further, Yattany revealed that health stakeholders will hold a meeting with the Ministry of Health officials on February 16 to work on the possible ways of ending the strike as soon as possible.
According to the CS, the findings from the Saturday proceedings will be tabled in court on Monday.
President Kenyatta had ordered the nurses to resume duty by Friday or risk losing their jobs.
The head of state demanded that those who do not show up to work on the said date should be axed; both by the County Government and the Ministry of Health.
He also ordered the police to take action against those who might try and block others from reporting to their work stations.
“As the Commander in Chief of the Kenya Defense Forces, I have instructed the National Police Service to take stern action against those picketers who may intimidate or harass the public servants who intend to go to work,” he said.
On his part, Kenya National Union of Nurses (Knun) Secretary General Panyako revealed that he was not in a position to call off the strike announced by KNUN branch officials.
Read:Crisis Looms As Nurses Vow To Defy President Kenyatta’s Order To Resume Duty
“If today they advise me to call of the strike following the directive from our president, I will do that very diligently. This is not a national strike, but we are dealing with individual counties,” said Panyako.
“I’m still waiting for direction from branch officials, but as it stands, the strike is on until we are paid what is rightfully ours.”
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