CS Mailu warns nurses, defends uncollected mobile clinics

Health CS Cleopa Mailu before Parliamentary Labour and Social Welfare Committee in Nairobi on February 22 2017. PHOTO DAVID NJAAGA/STANDARD

Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu declared on Tuesday that the Government would not open any new negotiations with nurses on strike.

The CS accused the nurses of orchestrating the suffering of Kenyans through their work boycott.

The nurses have been on strike for four months to protest non-implementation of their collective bargaining agreement with the national and county governments.

Speaking on the sidelines of a week-long Catholic Health Commission meeting at Pride Inn Paradise Beach Resort Convention Centre and Spa in Mombasa, Dr Mailu urged nurses to respect a court verdict that had outlawed the strike.
 
"We have listened to their grievances; they are not issues that should subject Kenyans to suffering and death," Mailu said.

Bishop Paul Kariuki, chairman of the Catholic Health Commission, said the Church was working with the Ministry of Health to ensure that vaccines offered to Kenyans were safe.