- Title: Kenya nurses in 5th week of strike.
- Date: 11th July 2017
- Summary: NAIROBI, KENYA (JULY 10, 2017) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF NURSES UNION MEMBERS ON STREET PLACARD READING (English): "BEYOND ZERO IS ZERO WITHOUT NURSES" PROTESTER BLOWING TRUMPET VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS CARRYING A MOCK COFFIN WRITTEN: "RIP SEREM" /SARAH SEREM IS THE HEAD OF THE SALARIES AND REMUNERATION COMMISSION (SRC) VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS CARRYING KENYA NATIONAL UNION OF NURSES (KNUN) BANNER VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS MARCHING THROUGH STREET NURSE PROTESTING CARRYING PLACARD READING (English): "KENYATTA NATIONAL HOSPITAL STOP GIVING CABBAGE TO MOTHERS IN THE NAME OF WORK" (SOUNDBITE) (English) KNUN CHAIRMAN, JOSEPH NGWASI, SAYING: "The public and the nation and the country needs to know is that nurses are not out for the sake of it. Nurses negotiated for a collective bargaining agreement. If jailing the officials is what will realize the respect for the nurses of this country then so be it. The officials are ready to go to jail the officials are ready to die for what they negotiated because if that is what will accord the Kenyan nurses respect, then so be it. We are ready for anything even to die, leave alone jailing if that is what will give the nurses Collective Bargaining Agreement." (SOUNDBITE) (English) STRIKING NURSE, CAROLINE ADEWLA, SAYING: "We must be demonstrating here every Monday until and unless the CBA is signed, registered in court and implemented, that is the time we shall go back on duty. We are very much ready to go on duty because our patients are suffering but the CBA had been concluded therefore we don't need to renegotiate once again." VARIOUS AT PROTEST RALLY PROTESTERS/ SKYLINE OF NAIROBI CITY
- Embargoed: 25th July 2017 16:33
- Keywords: Nurses CBA Collective Bargaining Agreement Salaries Protests Strike
- Location: NAIROBI, KENYA
- City: NAIROBI, KENYA
- Country: Kenya
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA0016P9W28N
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A national strike by government nurses in Kenya has entered its fifth week, affecting medical services in many parts of the country.
The 26,000-member Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) is demanding that a deal to give them pay rises be signed and implemented.
The deal was meant to have been signed by the union, the national government and county governments, but the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), which advises on public sector pay rejected the deal.
"The officials are ready to go to jail the officials are ready to die for what they negotiated because if that is what will accord the Kenyan nurses respect, then so be it," said the union chairman, Joseph Ngwasi.
"We must be demonstrating here every Monday until and unless the CBA is signed, registered in court and implemented, that is the time we shall go back on duty. We are very much ready to go on duty because our patients are suffering but the CBA had been concluded therefore we don't need to renegotiate once again," said Caroline Awdela, a nurse at the protest rally.
The strike, which has led to patients being sent away from many government hospitals, is a headache for both national and county governments ahead of elections on August 8.
President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is seeking re-election in August, said in March that the overall wage bill had to be cut.
He said salaries consumed half of all revenues and were impeding spending on development projects in Kenya, a country mired in poverty where the unemployment rate stands at about 40 percent.
On Monday (July 10) the SRC said it was cutting the salaries of top officials, including the president and lawmakers, and slashing their allowances, saving the East African economy 8.5 billion shillings ($81.90 million) annually. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
