(NAIROBI, KENYA) – Kenya’s public healthcare system faces deeper disruption after doctors threatened to join a nationwide nurses’ strike now in its sixth week. The doctors’ union said increased workloads in hospitals have become unsustainable as facilities struggle without nursing staff.
The nurses are demanding implementation of a collective bargaining agreement signed in 2017 after a six month strike. The government has cited budget shortfalls for failing to honour the deal. Dr. Davji Bhimti Atellah, secretary general of the doctors’ union, said doctors are overburdened and cannot perform nursing duties.
Atellah said hospitals are already operating with too few doctors and that healthcare delivery requires teamwork. He said the union would not watch the system deteriorate. He added that when one part of healthcare is compromised, all workers suffer, and standing together protects patients.
On Tuesday, hundreds of nurses marched to the Council of Governors office in Nairobi. The council brings together Kenya’s 47 county governments. Governors and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission were scheduled to meet the same day to discuss pay.
Atellah said the doctors’ union has given the government seven days to resolve the nurses’ grievances. If no action is taken, doctors will issue a formal strike notice.
Seth Panyako, head of the nursing union, said the government is not prioritising healthcare in budget planning. He said the claim that there is no money to implement the 2017 agreement is unfair to nurses who deliver essential services.
Ahmed Abdullahi, chair of the Council of Governors, last week asked nurses to end the strike and allow negotiations to continue. He said a court had ruled the ongoing industrial action illegal and that county governments would take action against striking nurses.
James Murimi, a nurse who marched five kilometres on Tuesday, said the return to work agreement was meant to improve uniform and nursing service allowances. He said those allowances have never been improved and have now accumulated for nine years. Murimi said the government owes nurses nine years of arrears.
The Senate on Tuesday discussed the closure of hospital dispensaries in some counties. Nandi County Senator Samson Cherargei said there had been a rise in deaths and blamed the Council of Governors and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission for what he called a national crisis.