By Mercy Imali
Laikipia County Nurses have downed their tools demanding their pay. The move has further paralysed services in the hospitals as for a month now, doctors have been on strike.
The nurses who congregated at the Laikipia West Sub County offices in Nyahururu to demand their June pay, said that delayed payment of their salaries was detrimental to service delivery.
Purity Matu, chair of the Kenya National Union of Nurses, Laikipia Branch noted it was unfortunate that their June salaries were delayed. They are now forced to walk to work and go without food for the 38th day of work.
She decried penalties being imposed on their loans that were deducted at source but not remitted as a result of the delays. She added that no meaningful services will be delivered by the distressed workforce.
Eunice Nyaguthii complained that the heavy workload that had led to her stroke. She said that though she loved her patients, she could not work on an empty stomach let alone pay her own employees.
There are also grievances of working without contracts on meagre pay. The few patients who turned up at Nyahururu County referral hospital were met with empty service desks.
The union officials insisted that they needed to be paid on time to avoid financial inconveniences that are caused by late payment.