The Council of Governors (CoG) has renewed its call for striking nurses to return to work, insisting that the 2017 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) at the centre of the standoff was signed under duress and remains financially unworkable for counties.
Speaking during an Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council (IBEC) meeting chaired by Deputy President Kithure Kindiki, CoG Chairperson Ahmed Abdullahi said counties are willing to keep talking but cannot commit to an agreement they cannot fund.
“We have tried to negotiate with nurses, and it is still ongoing. They called a strike; the court has said it is illegal, but they are still insisting,” Abdullahi said.
The nurses, under the Kenya National Union of Nurses and Midwives, have kept up the industrial action despite a court declaring it illegal, demanding implementation of the 2017 return-to-work formula, conclusion of a new CBA, career progression guidelines, and permanent and pensionable terms for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) workers.
Abdullahi said the Council had already put forward a proposal it hopes will break the deadlock. “We want to ask nurses to go back to work as we negotiate this matter. As the leadership of the Council, we offered a deal, and we are hoping that if there is an agreement, we could go to SRC together,” he said.
On the question of PnP terms for UHC staff, Abdullahi maintained that governors are not opposed to the idea in principle but want guaranteed long-term funding first. “We are all in agreement that UHC staff ought to be PnP. All we are saying is that the money must be in perpetuity, this year, next year and 20 years from now,” he said.
The CoG chair also confirmed that county public service boards have been told to handle nurses who remain absent from duty despite court orders, though he acknowledged that disciplinary action could trigger fresh legal disputes. “The position we have taken as a Council is that every governor and Public Service Board deals with the issue of not responding to court orders in accordance with established HR procedures,” he said.
Deputy President Kindiki, who has repeatedly intervened in the standoff, urged both sides to prioritise dialogue. “We must urgently resolve the nurses’ strike because disruption of health services hurts our development agenda. The Council of Governors and the nurses’ union must sit down, engage and find a solution that will allow health services to resume normally,” he said.
The strike, now in its second month since beginning on July 29, has continued to disrupt services in public hospitals across the country, with patients bearing the brunt of the prolonged standoff.
