Public health facilities across Trans Nzoia County continue to experience severe healthcare disruptions after nurses stayed away from work as part of a nationwide strike.
Nurses in the county said the industrial action, which began at midnight on July 29, has affected about 90 per cent of public health facilities nationwide and will continue until the government resolves five outstanding labour grievances.
Officials from the Trans Nzoia branch of the Kenya National Union of Nurses and Midwives (KNUNM) acknowledged the hardship facing patients but maintained that the government had left nurses with no alternative.
“Unfortunately to our clientele, our people of Trans Nzoia, we may not be accessing services as expected because the nurses of Kenya are on strike,” the union’s Trans Nzoia Branch Secretary General Edward Cheruiyot said in Kitale.
Cheruiyot added that the strike would not be called off until the government addressed all the issues contained in the union’s July 21, 2026 strike notice.
“We are at about 90 per cent closure of facilities. We are not coming back until you address all the five issues as raised in our strike notice of July 21, 2026,” he said.
At the centre of the dispute is the delayed conclusion of a centralized Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which the union says stalled after the Council of Governors (CoG) requested centralized negotiations but later failed to conclude the process.
“You must come back to the table, negotiate, conclude, let the SRC approve it and give us the go-ahead so that we can come back,” the official said.
The union is also demanding implementation of a 2017 agreement on nursing service and uniform allowances, saying the national and county governments failed to honour an agreed implementation timeline that lapsed in April 2026.
“Until the national government, the Council of Governors, the National Treasury and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission give an implementation matrix for the 2017 agreement, all the nurses in this country shall continue being on strike,” Cheruiyot said.
Another major grievance concerns nurses employed under Universal Health Coverage (UHC) contracts.
The union said the affected nurses have worked for six years on temporary contracts earning a consolidated salary of KSh50,000 despite funds being available for their transition to permanent and pensionable employment.
“Our colleagues have worked under an exploitative contract for six years with a consolidated salary of only KSh50,000. That is a serious unfair labour practice,” the official said.
He added that the union would continue supporting the affected workers until the government absorbed them into the regular payroll.
“We will support our colleagues in this strike until they are put on the payroll on the terms that have already been agreed upon,” he said.
The union further accused county governments of failing to implement approved career progression guidelines for nurses, saying the failure had created disparities between nurses employed by the national government and their county counterparts.
“It is already being implemented at the national level, but at the county level it is not being implemented. It is creating a lot of discrimination, and we will not agree to discrimination,” he said.
The union also called on the Kisii County Government to comply with court orders reinstating dismissed nurses, describing the matter as a violation of labour laws.
The union further criticized the management of Wamalwa Kijana Teaching and Referral Hospital for allegedly allowing student nurses and interns to perform duties ordinarily handled by qualified nurses during the strike.
“It is illegal to let students work on their own. They are risking the lives of our clients, they are risking medical-legal issues, and the facility shall suffer,” the official said.
He directed all nursing students and interns to withdraw from clinical duties until the industrial action ends.
“All the BSN interns should vacate all the facilities, and all the students from all the training institutions should go back to class until the strike is concluded,” he said.
The union also warned the Trans Nzoia County Government that it would face a county-specific strike immediately after the nationwide strike if local agreements remain unimplemented.
“When this nationwide strike ends, it shall be followed immediately by a county-based strike because of your refusal to implement agreements that we entered into in good faith,” the official warned.
He cited pending SRC salary arrears, unpaid uniform allowance arrears, delayed promotions, poor working conditions and acute staff shortages as unresolved issues.
Despite expressing sympathy for patients affected by the strike, the union maintained that it would not suspend the industrial action until the government implements the agreed labour reforms.
“We empathise. We sympathise. But this is the only choice that we have because the government has refused to do its part,” the official said.
