As nurses from Kenya and all other corners of the globe mark this year’s International Nurses & Midwives Week, it is of the essence to recollect events that occurred during the push for registration of the Kenya National Union of Nurses.
In 2012, a group of enthusiastic but disillusioned nurses led by the current Secretary General of the nurses’ union, Mr. Seth Panyako lobbied vigorously for the registration of a body that would champion their welfare, an idea the government of the day vehemently opposed through its Minister of Medical Services, Prof. Anyang’ Nyong’o.
During one of the parliamentary sessions, Nyongó tacitly remarked that the 3,000 nurses who had gone on strike demanding registration of their union were unwilling to participate in talks and hence they are uncivilized. According to him a lack of civility was a mark of zombism.
When the then MP for Ikolomani Dr. Boni Khalwale besieged the stubborn minister to apologize for the insulting utterance, Nyongó replied that “anyone who refuses to listen to reason, even if it is Dr. Khalwale, that person is a zombie.”
At the time, Panyako had deliberately refused to meet Nyongó because the bone of contention was not under the purview of the Ministry of Medical Services but rather the Ministry of Labour.
The squabbles continued but eventually, the Kenya National Union of Nurses was registered on 19th April 2013.
Nyongó is currently serving his second term as Governor of Kisumu County and his harsh criticism of health workers’ strikes has not changed if his comments against KMPDU’s Secretary General Dr. Davji Atellah during a recent Citizen TV interview is anything to go by.
Delayed disbursement of salaries, non-remittance of statutory deductions, and understaffing of health workers are some of the challenges bedeviling a sizable number of county governments if not all. Kisumu itself has become an epicenter of the health devolution crisis as regards the timely remuneration of workers.
These problems have persisted partly due to ineptness and lack of vocal cords on the side of KNUN to voice the plight of nurses working in the devolved units. As a result, hope has dwindled among young nurses and that has fuelled their relocation to some first-world nations in search of a better working life.
Even though KNUN, the sole union of nurses in Kenya has failed to live up to its mission, this is the perfect time to reflect on the setbacks nurses have surmounted to achieve the elusive independence and autonomy of their profession in this country.
Having successfully fought for a fully-fledged union that eventually detoured from the initial aspirations of nurses, a cleansing of this body is imperative. Nurses ought to approach the internal challenges facing them as a united force before they can orchestrate a better future.
This may not be realized through the creation of a rival union by a splinter faction of the nurses who were determined to do so until recently when a court of law halted the process. On the other hand, KNUN officials should not laugh off the breakaway threats but rise to the realization that nurses have had enough of their shenanigans and kickstart a conversation of change.
However, be that as it may, we need to acknowledge that untimely payment of health workers’ dues is a top-level act of zombism.
