Striking clinical officers clash with Nakuru county administration

The Nakuru county government has denied using clinical officers on internships to carry out the job meant for professionals.

The County Medical Services Chief Officer Dr John Murima refuted the claims by the Kenya union of Clinical officers of substituting professional clinical officers with interns, terming them as false.

The Chief officer maintained that all the clinical officers engaged by the county have been reporting to work as usual despite the ongoing nationwide strike.

According to Dr Murima, the county has a total of 225 clinical officers all employed by the county administration on different terms.

“There has been no disruption of services at our hospital since none of them joined the strike. Let them (clinical officers union) give evidence of the interns who are doing work meant for the qualified clinical officers,” said Dr Murima.

The response by Dr Murima followed a media briefing in Nakuru where the union officials accused the county administrations of running away from addressing the strike and instead replacing them with their students.

Speaking in Nakuru on Thursday the union Chairman Peterson Wachira accused the county government of ignoring the plight of the clinical officers by subjecting them to unfavourable working conditions.

Mr Wachira faulted the administration for violating the rights of their members by discriminating against them in their employment terms.

According to the union’s secretary general George Gibore, the county has given different terms of payment to different categories of officers against the provisions of the labour practices.

“This is one of the counties where you have clinical officers labelled with different names to be exploited. The categories range from those on Permanent and pensionable who receive full pay going down to the poorest paid, the casuals, who receive between Sh 15,000 and Sh 20,000,” said Mr Wachira.

He condemned the issue of paying clinical officers with the same level of qualification different remuneration.

“It is discriminatory, which is irregular, illegal, exploitative and immoral. It is unfortunate that the governor who is a lawyer has failed to protect the rights of the employees,” he said.

He threatened to lead one of the major demonstrations in the county if no action is taken as well as take legal action against the county government.

This comes as the strike by the clinical workers entered its 69^th day even as the union vows not to relent until their issues are addressed.

Among their grievances include the approval of the professional career guidelines, conclusion and implementation of the 2017 Collective Bargaining Agreement, payment to internships, employment of more officers as well as enhancement of their medical cover.

Mr Gibore says Nakuru county is among the counties in the country that have decided to exploit interns as a tactic to avoid ignoring the strike.

A visit at the Nakuru Level Five Hospital revealed normal services ongoing with the patients being attended to.

The hospital Medical Superintendent noted that there has been no disruption of health services since the strike began.

“I even forgot whether the clinical officers were on strike since services at this facility have been going on as normal,” says Dr James Waweru.