National Nurses’ Union Chair Seth Panyako wants Kisii Governor James Ongwae to unconditionally reinstate health workers sacked during the height of the industrial strike in December.
Panyako said the failure by the administration to allow the nurses to resume work smarks of hypocrisy on the side of the governor.
He accused him of failing to embrace the spirit of reconciliation to end the standoff eight-month-long impasse.
“What we are seeing is a county government that disregards the rule of law, that does not respect the reconciliation report from the Ministry of Labour and allow the nurses to report back to work,” he said.
Panyako said the county was still using police and enforcement officers to block the health staff from resuming work.
Other nurses still on duty, he said, had not been paid seven months salary making their lives of untold misery.
” When you deny workers their dues, you are cutting off a livelihood from other people who also depend on them and you are by extension affecting your county’s economy to grow,” observed Panyako.
Panyako was speaking at a Kisii hotel on Thursday after a meeting with the affected health staff.
At least 75 health officers, among them union officials, were shown the door by the county during the industrial strike.
He said Ongwae’s failure to order the return of the affected staff holds contempt for the noble role played by the county in championing the rights of workers in the country.
” Our core mandate is to fight for the rights of our workers, a duty we shall continue discharging faithfully,” said Panyako.
Jane Midogo, Treasurer Nurses Union Kisii Branch, said the county lacks sufficient staff in the backdrop of the recent sackings.
” Services have ground to a halt in some departments while the county is sacking. It should not be the business to be dismissing staff as opposed to improving their welfare,” she told journalists.
By Darlington Mose
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