Patients bear the brunt of Nairobi health staff strike

A frail looking John Kabiru is wheeled into a ward at the Mbagathi District Hospital.

He is in deep thought after learning that nurses, clinical officers and lab attendants in  Nairobi county began their strike yesterday to demand the implementation of a Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Kabiru, who has been admitted to the facility for the last three months, is in a lot of pain, but there is no one to attend to him.

“I leave my fate to God. I appeal to the government to intervene because we are suffering,” said Kabiru.

When People Daily team arrived at the hospital at around 10am, guards were quick to inform us that no services were being offered.

At the children’s wing, we found Flora Kuiya holding her one-year-old son. The child, who was injured while playing on Friday, was scheduled to undergo a hip bone X-ray but the procedure could not be done because of the strike.

“My son is in pain and that’s why I brought him to the hospital very early hoping he would be one of the first to be attended to only to run into this strike,” a teary Kuiya said.

Yesterday, the Kenya National Union of Nurses (Knun), Kenya Union of Medical Laboratory Officers and Kenya National Union of Clinical Officers accused the county government of making false promises.

“We don’t want anymore talks. We will down our tools until Governor Sonko addresses our concerns”, said Boaz Onchari, chair of Knun Nairobi branch.