NURSES OFFICIALS IN MANDERA TO APPEAR IN COURT AS HEALTH FACILITIES CLOSES

 BY ADOW JUBAT

Six health workers who were arrested in Mandera on Monday afternoon as 458 health workers around the county embarked on indefinite work boycott that has paralyzed operations in 48 health facilities in the border county will appear in Mandera court at 9 am today.

The six, officials of Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) were picked from their houses at Mandera county referral hospital by police officers and put in cell at Mandera police station, where they spent the night after been denied cash bill by the police.

The Mandera County police commander Job Boronjo said the nurses will charged with incitements of fellow workers to participate in an illicit strike and also for contempt of court restraining them from going on strike as the issue were to be deliberated.

The county government on Friday last week sorted a court injunction stopping the strike which they term was illegal and meant to hurt innocent patients. The court is to be determine the issue on Thursday this week.

The health employees who returned to work on February this year after a four days similar go-slow said they decided to withdraw their services after the county government failed to honor raft of issues they promised to address.

Speaking to the Frontier Leaks from the police cell, Mohamednur Maalim Abdi the spokesman for the striking workers said the health workers were striking as aggrieved workers as provided by in the article 41 of the constitution of Kenya and they will not resume duties until all their demands are addressed amicably and speedily.

"After the Mandera county health workers strike on February this year, the county government signed agreement with us on 6th to address our concerns which we raised with them; however, up to date none out of 6 of our grievances were addressed. We treat this as abuse of workers", He said.

Abdi said the issues that is promoting the health employees to go on strike are upgrading of all seconded staffs by one group job ahead by end of February 2015, implementation of Serem proposed house and hardship allowances by march 2015 and backdated to January 2014, immediate confirmation of the employed staffs and putting them into permanent and pensionable terms of employment. Other demands Britam health cover for county contracting staffs like other county staffs.

The health workers also claimed that the working condition were deplorable with their staff quarters houses leaking during the rain and they have no toilets forcing them to share the same with patients. They also claimed that they serve patients while standing for the 8 hours they are be on duty since there were no a single chair to seat on.

However, the county executive member for Health Hassan Emoi disabused the workers assertion that the county was not doing enough to address the plight of health workers and instead accused them of insincere with their demands and impatient.

"When the county inherited health services from national government in 2013, there were only 154 in the entire county, when we took over we have employed 340 health workers in the last two years. This has helped in reducing the long working hours and stressing situation our healthcare workers were experiencing", He said.

He added "As a county government we understand the challenges such as insecurity and hardship working conditions our health workers were undergoing while serving our people, but we are unhappy that they are impatient in allowing us to undergo all legal processes required to effect their demands, which of course takes time",

Emoi said most of issues raised by the striking workers are in their final stage to be addressed noting that aggrieves such as promotion of staffs has to undergo long processes of reconstructing files of the employees so as to establish who is due for promotion, and who isn't adding that the process is in its completion now.

He said " The health workers also want us to confirm the staff employed by the county and increase their salaries, but before a worker is confirmed the regulations states that they have to be on probation for year as their documents are be verified, while on the issue of salary increment has a national body to handle",

A meeting by county health officials with health workers representative on Labour Day to thwart the strike ended in disarray, after the latter turn down call requesting them not to proceed with the industrial action claiming that they lost trust with the county government handling of their concerns.

Abdi said that the health workers has served the county their employer (the county government) a protest letter raising their concerns over delayed implementation of what has been agreed previously and again served 21 days strike notice to the county administration on 13th, April, which they claimed was also ignored.