At least 60 nurses at the Kilifi County Referral Hospital are demanding salary arrears accrued during the months of January and February last year.
The nurses were part of a group that staged a strike to demand for better working conditions but they now claim that a section of them were paid their salaries for the two months they were on strike leaving them behind.
Speaking on conditions of anonymity, the nurses claim that they are now worried and demotivated to perform their duties and want the County government of Kilifi to pay them.
“Our demands were never met even after we agreed to halt the strike but it is a disservice to some of us after we learnt that some of our colleagues whom we were together during that strike actually received their pay,” said one of the nurses.
She added that they presented their grievances to the Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) but were told that the County government had no money to pay them.
Promotion from one job group to the other and lack of salary increment constitute some of their grievances.
Another nurse said that she got into financial mess after defaulting on a loan after she failed to be paid the two months’ salary
“I had a loan but I defaulted since the deductions were being done from my pay slip yet I did not receive any salary for two months,” she said and urged the County government to pay them so that they can solve some financial issues since the cost of living has also gone up.
Some nurses also said that they now want compensation since following up on the issue was becoming unsuccessful.
“Our union is aware of our complaints but has not yet solved the issue even after requesting the nurses to submit their details for compensation sometime back, we want the county government to stop this biasness and compensate us,” she said.
The Kilifi County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Health Charles Karisa Dadu defended the county government saying that it is upon the complainants to table their demands to the hospital administration so that the human resource office can recommend for their remuneration.
“You are paid for what you worked, if they have a proof that they were at work the hospital administration should present the Human Resource with that report then we will recommend the salary team to re-reimburse their money,” said Dadu.
He dismissed claims that some nurses were secretly paid their salaries despite them participating in the strike adding that only those presenting their proofs of work were paid.
“It was not a secret thing but the said employees appealed and provided proof that they were on duty at that particular time”, he said.
Efforts to get a comment from the KNUN officials in Kilifi County bore no fruits as the chairperson was none committal on the issue.
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