Nurses Reject ‘Duress’ Claim, Vow to Continue Strike Into Fifth Week

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept 1 — The Kenya National Union of Nurses and Midwives (KNUNM) has vowed to continue the nationwide nurses’ strike into its fifth week, saying the industrial action will only end after the government and the Council of Governors agree to sign and implement a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

The union has also called for President William Ruto’s intervention following an alleged assault on nurses during a demonstration in Kisii.

KNUNM National Chairperson Joseph Gwosi said negotiations had resolved the issue of nurses who had been working on contract under the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) programme, with affected workers beginning to receive letters confirming their employment on permanent terms.

He said the union and the Council of Governors had also agreed to establish a joint committee to develop career guidelines for nurses.

However, Gwosi said the implementation of the CBA remained the main outstanding issue.

“The matters we have not agreed on is one matter which is very important to nurses. And that is the matter of the contract of working which is known in English as CBA. There we want to tell the nation and our health workers who are nurses that we have no agreement with the government,” he said.

The union estimates that implementing the CBA would cost about Sh5.9 billion, an amount Gwosi said was affordable for the government.

“The government is being dishonest on this matter. We know, and we have seen even the money that has been spent on various occasions. That money is enough to cater for the nurses CBA, which just requires 5.9 billion,” he said.

Gwosi questioned why the government could not meet the cost of the agreement while implementing salary reviews for other public officers.

He said nurses were also seeking recognition of the risks associated with their work, particularly their exposure to infectious diseases.

“Our irreducible minimum, we are not asking so much. Nurses are the frontline healthcare workers,” Gwosi said.

He cited the risks nurses faced during outbreaks of diseases such as Mpox, Ebola and COVID-19, saying nurses are often the first healthcare workers to interact with patients before diagnosis.

“That is why we are saying we cannot negotiate on what we agreed on risk allowance. That is our bare minimum,” he said.

Gwosi said uniform allowance was another issue previously negotiated by the union, while career guidelines would be addressed through the proposed joint committee with the Council of Governors.

KNUNM Deputy Secretary General Maurice Opetu confirmed that the strike had entered its fifth week and would continue until the CBA issue was resolved.

“The nurses’ strike has entered the fifth week and is on and is going to continue without any backing down until our demand for the signing of the CBA is met,” Opetu said.

He urged nurses to remain active in the strike, saying the union would not be intimidated by threats or violence during demonstrations.

Opetu also rejected claims that the agreement forming the basis of the CBA was signed under duress.

He said the return-to-work agreement was signed on November 2, 2017, following negotiations involving the national and county governments.

“The return to work agreement which forms our CBA draft was signed on 2nd November 2017 by the government, by the two levels of the government,” he said.

Opetu said no coercion was involved when the agreement was signed.

“Two, no gun was pointed on the heads of all the signatories of our return to work agreement in 2017. It was signed in a very harmonious meeting out of understanding, out of great engagement and agreement,” he said.

He instead accused county governments of leaving nurses to work without what the union considers a properly implemented CBA.

“But the governors have made the nurses to work under duress without the CBA. And then working under duress pushed us to call a strike after trying all the years to resolve the matter,” Opetu said.

The union has called on President Ruto to intervene in the dispute between nurses and the Council of Governors.

Opetu said the President had previously promised to mediate between the two sides.

“We call upon the president that it is time for him to intervene. The way he promised during the summit, he promised Kenyans in broad daylight that it was only going to take a week and that he was to personally arbitrate between the workers who are nurses and the council of governors,” he said.

The union also raised concerns over a demonstration in Kisii where nurses had planned to present a petition to Governor Simba Arati.

Gwosi alleged that the nurses encountered people armed with crude weapons during the demonstration and accused police officers at the scene of failing to adequately protect them.

The union has not yet established the number of nurses who may have been injured.

Gwosi said KNUNM would mobilise nurses and other health workers in Kisii in response to the incident, while accusing Arati’s administration of allowing intimidation of nurses.

Opetu said the incident would not force the union to abandon the strike.

“We are energized and we are moving on until our demands are met,” he said.

He urged the national and county governments to resume negotiations and conclude the dispute, saying nurses were ready to return to work once the CBA process was completed.

“We are calling the two levels of the government to sit together today and resolve our issues, come on the table and sign our CBA and SRC to give a note of no objection. Then we shall go back to work even tonight,” Opetu said.

The union has maintained that the strike will continue until its outstanding demands are addressed, leaving the government and county governments under pressure to find a resolution to the CBA dispute.