Striking nurses in Uasin-Gishu yesterday stormed the county government's offices in Eldoret town to protesting failure by the latter to address their grievances.
This comes 14 days after the health workers downed their tools to force Governor Jackson Mandago to address problems facing the sector, including delayed payment and poor working conditions.
The nurses, led by Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) officials brought business at the governor's offices to a halt for about two hours, disrupting a county government performance contract signing activity at the County Hall.
"Fourteen days after we called for the strike, the county government of Uasin-Gishu has not sought our union's officials for dialogue. It looks like the county government is not interested in addressing the nurses' problems," said Simion Kibii, the county KNUN chairman.
Intimidation
The nurses accused the county government of discrimination and harassment.
"We have not received salary for three months. Officials from the governor's office, the county executive committee member (CEC) for Health, chief officer for Health and county nurse have conspired to harass and intimidate nurses into doing their bidding," Mr Kibii alleged.
The KNUN official cited an instance where nurses in Soy were given disciplinary letters for 'not welcoming the governor' to their health institution.
"There is also rampant discrimination and tribalism where some health workers have been threatened with transfers for belonging to other counties," he said.
The KNUN official claims that union officials have been transferred in a bid to silence them from addressing nurses problems.
Addressing the nurses on behalf of his Health counterpart, Trade CEC Philip Meli asked the protesting health workers to give the county government two days to address the said grievances through a dialogue with union officials.
Mr Meli admitted that the county government has not met the union officials since the strike started.
"We will sit with your union officials in a bid to address these issues. We need two days to dialogue," he said. The County Assembly Health Committee Chairman Patrick Bundotich asked the nurses to be patient.
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