THE NURSES STRIKE: WAPI ATWOLI'S COTU?

[jakaswanga]

The situation in the health service in Kenya, is a continuing crisis. The more or less permanent labour unrest in the sector, being the political expression of that crisis. The death statistics, or other indicators of relevant performance, and wananchi's confidence in their health system, I am sure, will also reveal an ongoing crisis.

The minister himself, the political responsible, who in a period of 12 months has found himself compelled to sack 50 thousand Nurses twice over, (not to mention the sacking of doctors, withdrawal of 'registrars' privileges --banned from entering public hospitals where many were both schooling and practicing!) can also be said to be in a crisis of management . That is a euphemism for the total incompetence of the professor, but I am his tribes-mate you know, so I am being hygienic!

After bungling the conflict resolution of the earlier strike in March 2012, bungling by nearly every official body involved, the issues have returned with a vengeance. Okoth Osewe of Kenya Red Alliance over at kenyastockholm.com/2012/03/12/sacking-of-striking-nurses-signals-need-for-a-workers-party/ provides the best commentary I have seen on the various aspects of this unrest.

One of the unseen processes, but whose effects are now visible in the dynamic of the conflicts, has been the crisis of Union leaderships too, and a radicalisation of lower-case workers in every unionised profession.

1. When University and Academic staff felt themselves too superior to be in an affiliate union encompassing all teachers, even primary schools for more effective mass mobilisation and bargaining clout, it opened a window for the government to practice divide and rule. And a temporary victory was won by the anti-labour forces who see the splintering of the workers front, as a weakening of organisation, and thus easiening containment.

But what we got in return was a leaner, meaner KNUT and KUPPET, themselves still rivals and ridden by suspicions arising from misplaced feelings of superiority by one; but their joint and inspired performance against Mutula Kilonzo's sacking letters sent fears upwards. And taught lessons to others. The nurses for instance.

The Nurses have never felt comfortable in the combine unions with doctors, or with other civil service folks where they were paying dues --eg the Union of Kenya Civil Servants, the amorphous UKCS. The doctors felt too superior, and behaved too superior, and considered their professional interests outside the range of representation by nurses --so they wouldn't vote for a nurse to a powerful position: snobism more like our parliament which now has been reserved for graduates only. A dangerous thing I think to write in law. If you remember Col. Mengistu later explaining from where the cold ruthlessness which made him enter the parliament and shoot his .. 'superiors'dead, one by one. But more on that at a later date!

And so it is, that the hottest issue in the latest nurses strike, is that of REGISTRATION OF THEIR OWN SPECIFIC UNIONS, in concert: Kenya National Union of Nurses, -KNUN, and Nurses Association of Kenya, NAK.

Here is a story on the internal politics of the nurses and their unions

www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000071876 rival unions advise differently. Dec 02-20123.

Rival nurses unions clashed on Saturday ahead of a national strike planned to begin Monday.
The Union of Kenya Civil Servants (UKCS), which currently represents nurses, dismissed the strike as ill-advised , while the

Kenya National Union of Nurses, which has been denied registration to represent nurses said that a paralysing strike is on the way to compel the Government to register their union and pay nurses their allowances.

In a press conference on Saturday, UKCS' head of Medical Chapter Evans Nasebe said that nurses have been misled to go on strike by an unregistered trade union.

As would be expected, the deep state in in all states to prevent the registration of a new Union. It would be led by the frontline soldiers from the very profession, lean and mean, with the risk of throwing up more Wilson Sossions. Men and women so sure of their profession and rights, they are beyond intimidation by Big State and her professors who owe their positions to patronage than competence.

NB: COTU must be questioned. Atwoli would do well to study COSATU in crisis. CongrEss of South African Trade Unions. The biggest Union within COSATU is the NUM [National Union of Miners]. The old Union of Cyril Ramaphosa, now dubbed Turncoat Cyril, even as he is set to succeed Jacoub Nzuma, later as POSA. (President of SA).

The problem [CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE] is that NUM is besieged by rival, more radical UNRECOGNISED, UNREGISTERED unions, boasting even more members and more mining worker loyalty than the official Union. And these er... em.. semi-legal unions have the capacity to reject agreements reached by NUM and managements, which means NUM has to support the state when workers in her sector are terrorised, like we saw during the Malakana mines massacre, and the rest.

So the inevitable question: who does NUM represent really? And if NUM is the pillar of COSATU, is COSATU a leaning tower of collapse?

I see the parallel of a leadership crisis with Atwoli's COTU. Confidence and Legitimacy. COTU must reform herself, to respond more to street level grievances ---frontline professions we say, teachers, nurses, manambas and PSV drivers, police, watchmen, prostitutes, secretaries. But Atwoli's looming crisis, is the ongoing crisis of the Kenyan left.

Below I will reproduce Okoth Osewe's full text on the Nurses Strike.

[jakaswanga]

THE ROLLING CRISIS NO POLITICIAN HEARD OF!

www.nation.co.ke/News/Nurses-sue-in-push-for-their-union/-/1056/1652766/-/gh63hrz/-/index.html - dec 28 2012 nurses push for new union]

Health workers want court to declare that they have a legal right to take part in a trade union

Striking nurses have taken their battle to court seeking an order to compel the Registrar of Trade Unions and the Medical Services Ministry to register their union.

www.nation.co.ke/News/State-ordered-to-hold-talks-with-nurses/-/1056/1653050/-/item/0/-/cjma68z/-/index.html [court orders ministry to engage in dialogue, dec 29]

Industrial Court Judge David Marete directed Medical Services Minister Anyang’ Nyong’o, Public Health Minister Beth Mugo and their Labour counterpart John Munyes to engage Kenya National Union of Nurses (Knun) as currently constituted to bring to an end the three-week-old strike.

The order to engage Knun in dialogue also includes other relevant and authorised ministries, departments and representatives.

www.nation.co.ke/News/Nurses-ordered-to-resume-duty-after-judge-cancels-strike-rights-/-/1056/1657818/-/hrmbsk/-/index.html [jan 04 2013]

Nurses ordered back to duty after court cancels strike rights

www.nation.co.ke/News/Ministry-blocks-salaries-of-striking-nurses-/-/1056/1657142/-/12a1pmp/-/index.html --salaries of nurses blocked [jan 3 2013]

One of the amazing things, is that it is the same court which has made thise contradictory rulings. Can one of the learned friends who is not a SoB explain why one ruling is not just registered as a dissenting opinion?

[how can the same court change her mind on her own ruling before an appeal?]

[jakaswanga]

THE UNFOLDING STORY OF CBA'S as shit documents. This is from december 2016

Nurses union calls off strike, signs pact with governors

Wednesday December 14 2016


KNUN General-Secretary Seth Panyako (left) exchanges documents with Nandi Governor Cleophas Lagat at Delta House, Nairobi, on December 14, 2016. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU | NATION MEDIA GROUP.

In Summary

The negotiations on the nurses four-year Collective Bargaining Agreement will begin in January 2017 and will stretch until no further than March 2017.

The recognition agreement specifies that the nurses in Job Group M and above will earn Sh15,000 “special allowances” while those in Job Group G to L will receive Sh20,000 every month

The documents were signed by a number of people: Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu, Kisumu Governor Jack Ranguma (Health chair, Council of Governors), Kisii Governor James Ongwae (Human resources point person, Council of Governors), Kenya National Union of Nurses secretary-general Seth Panyako and chairperson John Biiy.


By VERAH OKEYO

Nurses’ union officials have called off their national strike after governors signed to recognise their Collective Bargaining Agreement, a decision that has earned the caregivers of up to Sh20,000 monthly allowances.

Negotiations on the nurses four-year CBA will begin in January 2017 and will stretch until no further than March 2017.

The recognition agreement specifies that nurses in Job Group M and above will earn Sh15,000 in special allowances while those in Job Group G to L will receive Sh20,000 every month

The documents were signed by Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu, Kisumu Governor Jack Ranguma (Health chair, Council of Governors), Kisii Governor James Ongwae (Human resources point person, Council of Governors), Kenya National Union of Nurses Secretary-General Seth Panyako and Chairperson John Biiy.

WITHDRAW CASE

The two parties agreed that county governments would not punish or intimidate any of the officials for participating in the job boycott that claimed dozens of lives.
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The Council of Governors will also withdraw the case county bosses had lodged against the union officials.

Recognising the critical role that caregivers play in Kenya, Dr Mailu thanked the nurses for operating in a spirit of empathy and agreeing to go back to work.

According to the Nursing Council of Kenya data quoted in the 2016 economic survey, there were 73,562 nurses in Kenya in 2015, the bulk (46,038) being graduate and higher diploma holders, also referred to as registered nurses.

There are nearly another 6,000 that were in training in 2015 and are expected to join service in the near future.

9:100,000 RATIO

There are nine nurses per 10,000 patients, way below World Health Organisation recommended 23 per 10,000 patients.

These nurses' new allowances alone will cost taxpayers approximately a maximum of Sh1.5 billion every month.

The document clarifies that the monies would be paid in two instalments: the first tranche will be 60 per cent and the remaining 40 per cent will be paid in July in 2017.

While the public can sigh in relief that the job boycott that had paralysed service delivery in public hospitals is finally over, questions in the medical fraternity abound on what the nurses were really striking for.

DELAYED

An official who participated in the negotiations said the union officials called for a strike hoping to ride on the doctors’ job boycott when they had not agreed unanimously on their demands.

The signing of the recognition agreement in Delta House in Nairobi was delayed and at one point an angry Seth Panyako—the union’s vocal secretary-general— drove off, saying that the governors were seeking to turn them into “marionettes”

Mr Panyako told Nation.co.ke: “they want us to call of the strike before signing, and we have no assurance that they will keep their word”.

In the two hours that were whiled away, events that pointed to disagreements in the union played out.

Two days ago, the union was split after a section of its officials agreed to call off the strike to the chagrin of Mr Panyako who he is the one mandated by Knun constitution to call of the job boycott.

CLEAR POLICY

Amid the Wednesday delays, two former officials, a Mr Kibiriti and a Jeremiah Maina, tried to address the press before they were dismissed and whisked away as “impostors and traitors”.

Be that as it may, the CBA should address pertinent issues that nurses have been raising for years: there is not a clear policy on how they should be promoted; there are other human resources concerns such as medical insurance; and they have had many employers-- from the defunct local authorities and now county and national governments.

These multiple sources of employment have seen nurses in lower job groups earning more than their counterparts in higher grades.

But now fast forward to JUNE 2017
Wednesday June 7 2017

FIDA threatens court action over nurses’ strike

Wednesday June 7 2017. By OUMA WANZALA


An advocacy group has threatened to sue the government over its failure to end the nurses’ strike that has left several people dead and services paralysed in public hospitals.

In a hard-hitting statement, Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) Kenya chairperson Josephine Mong’are said the action is to protect the women and children of Kenya.

“It is extremely disheartening to see the nurses go on strike at a time when the country is yet to heal from the doctors’ strike that ended three months ago,” said Ms Mong’are.

She went on: “FIDA Kenya is disturbed by the inefficient approach with which the government continues to address the problems in the health sector.

“Ordinary citizens, who diligently pay taxes, are often left helpless and desperate for health services. Maternal and Child Health Care is the most affected. No woman should die while giving life.”

POSTPONE PROBLEMS
Related Content

Nurses dance in the streets as patients die - VIDEO
Infighting in Knun hits nurses' strike
Nurses' strike enters Day Two
Six die in Mombasa as nurses protest

The federation took issue with the rate at which collective bargaining agreements (CBA) in healthcare services are losing their value.

It said the CBAs are increasingly becoming a public gimmick meant to deceive Kenyans and a ploy to postpone problems.

“One is left to wonder whether all relevant stakeholders are usually involved and whether the right technical expertise is put in place during CBA negotiations.

“It is becoming unbearable to be treated to blame games by the different stakeholders. The Government of Kenya owes it to its citizens to put an end to the ... CBAs that lead to hundreds of lives being lost,” said the chairperson.

She reminded the government that it has a constitutional responsibility to protect the right to life and provide the highest attainable healthcare for Kenyans.

“We call upon the President and his government to take a decisive action to end the strike and restore the public health care system,” added Ms Mong’are.

The nurses’ strike entered its third day on Wednesday, with over 25,000 nurses boycotting work.

[jakaswanga]

Kenya National Union of Nurses asks SRC to treat nurses as professionals

Thursday September 14 2017

Nurses have remained adamant that they will not resume duty even as governors threaten to sack them.

Speaking Wednesday in Nairobi, Kenya National Union of Nurses Secretary-General Seth Panyako said the workers will not go back to work until their grievances are addressed.

“Nobody can coerce a worker to resume duty without having satisfactory agreements,” said Mr Panyako.

The official added that the strike will only be called off when the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) implements their Collective Bargaining Agreement like what was done for doctors.

DISCIPLINARY ACTION

“We are all professionals, therefore, you cannot pay one cadre up to 400 per cent increment while lowering the salaries of the other cadres, dismissing them as semi-skilled workers,” said Mr Panyako.

But in some counties, governors have threatened to move ahead with the disciplinary action against the nurses who have been on strike for the last three months.

Nakuru Governor Lee Kinyanjui has threatened to lay off more than 1,200 striking nurses if they fail to return to work by Friday.

Mr Kinyanjui on Wednesday said those who will not have reported to their respective areas by the end of the week will have their positions advertised for replacement.

DIALOGUE

He spoke as the nurses, through their national association, pleaded with the Council of Governors to give room for more dialogue.

“For three months now, hospitals have not been operational and patients have been forced to seek services in private facilities which they can’t afford. This is totally unacceptable,” said Mr Kinyanjui.

Three weeks ago when he assumed office, the governor formed a taskforce to look into issues affecting the county’s health sector, including the nurses’ strike. The team had 30 days to table its report.

The same case applies to Nandi and Baringo counties where the respective governors have issued a warning that those who will not resume duty by Monday next week will be dismissed for “engaging in an illegal action” that has affected provision of healthcare.

STRAINED SERVICES

Nandi Governor Stephen Sang said the nurses’ strike had strained services in the region’s public health facilities.

“Our health facilities are suffering from inadequate personnel. The current strike by the nurses has been declared illegal by the courts since it is not protected,” said Mr Sang in an address to the Nandi County Assembly.

READ: Nurses association calls for dialogue

READ: Nurses remain unshaken by threat of job losses

Mr Sang said the striking nurses must abide by a directive from the Council of Governors which ordered all workers to return to work by September 8 failing which the county government will dismiss them summarily.

“We are in the process of compiling data in order to establish how many nurses are back at work and will proceed forthwith to engage nurses on a contract basis to replace those who deserted duty,” he said. Last month, Baringo County Health Executive Andrew Kwonyike said they had stopped the salaries of nurses who were still on strike.

WILLING

The nurses, led by their union secretary Francis Koros, said they were willing to return to work after the Collective Bargaining Agreement is signed.

The governors’ council had threatened to take disciplinary measures against the nearly 26,000 nurses who have been on strike for the last 102 days.

Despite the threats, the nurses accused the national government of delaying a solution to the strike by failing to listen to their demands.

Nurses from Kisii, Migori, Homa Bay and Nyamira, who staged a demonstration along the streets of Kisii town on Wednesday, said they will not be cowed by the governors’ threats and will only resume work when the CBA is signed. The union’s Kisii County Secretary-General Moses Riang’a said the national government, the governors’ council and SRC had conspired to prolong the strike situation.

DEMANDS

The nurses are demanding Sh25,000 in monthly allowances, Sh15,400 in risk compensation, Sh5,000 in extraneous allowances as well as Sh5,000 responsibility allowance.

They also want Sh50,000 annual allowance for uniform.

But both the governors’ council and SRC have said the caregivers must return to work and await an evaluation of their job descriptions.

“We are used to their threats to sack nurses but we are not afraid. Our stand remains strong and we will not go to work until our demands are met,” said Mr Riang’a.

Reported by Elizabeth Merab, Magdalene Wanja, Elgar Machuka, Philip Bwayo and Flora Koech

Francis Kimemia of Nyandarua, an alternative vision to the mass sacking?


The emblem of shame.


Nanok of Turkana who replaced Peter Munya of Meru, the defeated party hopper and no-hopper!

A month or so ago, and the case of withheld salaries ---same torture implement unleashed on the teachers some years back! and then recently on the doctors. Kenyan Politicians are pushing it. They earn the heavens themselves for no work done except thieving. This simple fact could have occured to Francis Kimemia and made his pause, to think to break rank on the mass sacking.

Nurses’ turn down governors offer to end strike, dialogue
Aug. 03, 2017, 12:30 am

By JOHN MUCHANGI, @jomunji


Nurses have rejected the last offer to suspend their strike before next week’s General Election.

Governors had asked the health workers to call off their strike to give way for negotiations.

In exchange, the governors offered to pay the July salaries and other allowances that have been withheld.

The nurses would also not be victimised for taking part in an illegal strike.

The Council of Governors had further proposed to jointly appeal on job evaluation and grading of nurses with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.

“The county governments offered to withdraw disciplinary action that may have been taken against the nurses and agreed that no party shall be victimised,” the county governments negotiating team led by chairman Joseph Tanui said.

The offer was made at the Council of Governors offices yesterday, when county bosses met the Kenya National Union of Nurses.

But nurses rejected the offer, saying they are not ready for any negotiations.

“We expressed our position clearly that we are not calling off or suspending our strike until the CBA is signed,” union deputy secretary general Maurice Opetu said.

Yesterday’s meeting was a follow-up of last week’s talks at CoG offices in Nairobi.

The union was represented by Opetu, Halima Ahmed, Joseph Ngwasi, Agnes Munderu, Henry Adolwa and Benson Ambuni.

The county governments negotiating team comprised Tanui, Dr Mutile Wanyee, Eliud Muriithi and Justin Kimani.

The development comes days after nurses at Kenyatta National Hospital gave the government 48 hours to resolve the nurses strike, failing which they would join the industrial action.

The nurses have promised to down their tools in a show of solidarity, saying they are an integral part in the delivery of good health.

The countrywide strike now on its 58th day, is aimed at pushing for the implementation of the collective bargaining agreement.

National Nurses Association of Kenya national chairman Alfred Obuya said nursing services are the backbone of health functioning in hospitals.

“Health personnel are necessary in managing health situation in hospitals and with no nurses, then these are not achievable and that is the current situation in our hospitals,” he said.

[jakaswanga]

These are running issues. They do not make the legacy priority list, but healthcare is one of the things which makes a nation. It can therefore be a barometer of elite rot, incompetence and historical illegitimacy

FEBRUARY 7 2018 By NATION EDITORIAL

Nurses have made good their threat to down tools in some parts of the country to protest non-implementation of their salaries negotiated in 2017.

Consequently, medical services have been paralysed in various counties, causing pain and agony. More counties could join today, worsening the situation.

Right from the outset, we urge that the dispute be quickly resolved for the striking nurses resume work. Although the nurses have valid grievances, they should give dialogue a chance. The Kenya National Union of Nurses should agree to go to the negotiating table for arbitration as directed by the Labour ministry.

It is unfortunate that strike has become a perennial feature in the medical sector. If it is not nurses, then it is doctors. All this boils down to poor management and inability to resolve conflicts. Medical workers in the public sector operate under difficult conditions, are poorly remunerated and have few opportunities for professional growth. The conditions under which they work are antithetical to quality medical service delivery.

At the heart of the matter is the inability of the national and county governments to properly manage healthcare. Provision of medical services is largely devolved to counties. The national government is responsible for policy formulation and managing two national referral hospitals — Kenyatta in Nairobi and Moi in Eldoret. The rest are run by the counties. However, since the transfer of that role, the health sector has consistently move from one crisis to another.

SALARY PACKAGE

Evidence abounds indicating that devolution of medical services was the right thing. More facilities have been established across the country through devolution than ever witnessed before. Specialised treatment hitherto associated with the big hospitals are now available in county-based health facilities. Counties such as Makueni have become shining examples of universal health coverage.

But the converse is also true. Management of personnel and equipment has proved problematic. Many counties are grappling with staff management, particularly remuneration, training and promotion.

The current impasse arose from failure to honour a salary package negotiated between Knun and the counties through the Council of Governors and the Health ministry. While a few counties have implemented the deal, several others have not.

Strike, in whatever form, in the health sector is disruptive and tragic. A majority of the population depends on public health facilities; when they close down, it’s a big blow to the masses.

The issues in contention are straightforward. The counties and the national government should resolve them quickly.

CBA! which CBA, the courts once asked Union officials!
Wanted for the health sector: Mr. FixIt.

(Sorry Ladies, but when you produce an Iron One like Thatcher or Merkel, we will INDISPUTABLY see the men in ash heap of history. So long!)

[jakaswanga]

DON'T HAVE THE MONEY WONT PAY

‘No retreat, no surrender’, striking nurses vow

Sunday February 10 2019

Seth Panyako

Kenya National Union of Nurses Secretary-General Seth Panyako says they read mischief in government officials' assertion that there is no money yet it was budgeted for. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

In Summary

KNUN secretary general Seth Panyako accuses governors of being insincere, threatens nationwide strike.

So far, nurses in ten counties are on strike while nurses from seven more counties including those working in the Ministry of Health are expected to lay down their tools Sunday.


By ANGELA OKETCH


Nurses have now threatened to call for a nationwide strike to counter what they have said is arm-twisting from the national and county governments.

This is after the Salaries and Remuneration Commission chairperson Lyn Meng’ich declared that the government would not be able to meet nurses’ pay demands because it can’t afford to.

SUFFERING

She said that the Council of Governors, Ministry of Health and the National Treasury have all confirmed that they do not have money to pay the nurses.

Ms Meng’ich added that payment of the service and uniform allowances will lead to unsustainable levels of public debt.

“If we give in to the nurses demands, other health workers will also demand the same. This will have a ripple effect on the health sector,” she said.
Related Content

Patients to suffer as nurses down tools - VIDEO
Agony and pain as nurses take to streets over pay
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Court suspends nurses' strike

While the push and pull continues to put at risk the lives of residents in 10 affected counties, who will continue to suffer, indications are that the strike might drag on for longer.

So far, nurses in ten counties are on strike while nurses from seven more counties including those working in the Ministry of Health are expected to lay down their tools Sunday.

The strike is on in West Pokot, Kisumu, Taita Taveta, TransNzoia, Elgeyo Marakwet, Wajir, Mandera, Vihiga, TharakaNithi, Nyandarua and Nyeri. Tomorrow, nurses in Garissa, the Ministry of Health, Samburu, Kirinyaga and Embu will join the strike.

In Kisumu County, surgical, laboratory and maternity services have been affected.

Kisumu Governor Anyang Nyong’o has since appealed to the medics to return to work.

“Hundreds of patients are suffering since services at Kisumu County Hospital has been paralysed completely, due to the ongoing strike,” he said.

On February 18, Muranga, Busia, Nakuru, Siaya, Narok, Makueni, Bomet and Tana River will join the strike.

ENTERTAINMENT

Kenya National Union of Nurses secretary general Seth Panyako said that they have been patiently waiting for the governors to act but read mischief in their assertion that there is no money yet it was budgeted for.

“The strike is on. We are ready to fight through all available means to have what is rightfully ours. We do not care where they will get the money but the nurses will not go back to work until they are paid their allowances,” said Mr Panyako.

He said nurses are being taken for a ride in the country.

“In 2017, we were tricked by the CoG who were purporting to be signing the agreement then they later changed after going back to work that they are not our employers. This time around we will not be cowed by anybody. We are going to call for a national strike,” he said.

Senators are now asking the governors to sit down with the nurses and thrash out a workable agreement so that services can resume in hospitals.

“We are calling upon governors who are affected to talk to the nurses and agree on when they will pay them. It is not that they do not have the money. Where do they get money to budget for millions for entertainment if they cannot pay little monies to nurses?” Chairperson of the Senate Labour committee Johnston Sakaja, posed.

SH28 MILLION

He made the remarks during a meeting of stakeholders meant to air out thorny issues and looking for a way forward to the nurse’s issue.

Mr Sakaja alleged that the governors could have diverted the nurse’s money to other things.

He questioned why the SRC was saying that counties do not have the money yet some have paid and others committed to paying.

“Why are others paying and others not paying, where are they getting the money? What the nurses require is only Sh28 million a year per county. What is so difficult in giving peanuts to nurses yet they spend millions in masons and entertainment?” Asked Mr Sakaja.

Mr Sakaja said he had spoken to governors who had told him that they were willing to pay but could not because they had to seek authorisation.

'They' do not have money to pay the nurses, on a CBA deal which was signed and ratified by all parties in 2017!

They didn't budget for it, or if they did, they spent the money elsewhere!? ---That isn't bad. The bad is still out there, coming. When the money runs out to pay anything, except line the pockets of the nobility, to the further glory of the post-colonial aristocracy.

For today, CBA? which CBA!?

[jakaswanga]

WHICH AGREEMENTS ARE BINDING, WHICH ONES NOT, BETWEEN WORKERS AND EMPLOYERS?

Nurses dare governors and ministry over strike

Friday February 8 2019

Nurses

Members of Kenya National Union of Nurses in Elgeyo-Marakwet stage a protest in Iten town on February 5, 2019. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
In Summary

Ms Kariuki noted that the ministry and governors would fully comply with the conciliation process.
The nurses have issued an 11-day notice after which they will go on strike on February 18 if the allowances are not paid.


By ANGELA OKETCH AND By SIAGO CECE


Nurses have dared the Health ministry and Council of Governors to file for contempt after they refused to return to work as ordered by court.

Kenya National Union of Nurses Secretary-General Seth Panyako on Thursday said they will defy the call by county governments and the ministry asking them to report to work immediately in compliance with a Tuesday court order.

“If the Council of Governors and Ministry of Health feel there is a court order being disobeyed, let them go back for contempt against the respondent,” Kenya National Union of Nurses Secretary-General Seth Panyako said.

NEGOTIATION

In a statement signed by Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki and CoG Chairman Wycliffe Oparanya, they reiterated that they are committed to cooperate with the conciliation committee established by Labour Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani on Monday, and hence asked the nurses to return to work.

The two noted that the ministry and CoG had each submitted a memorandum of reply and said they would fully comply with the conciliation process.

Related Content

Court suspends nurses' strike
Pain, anguish as nurses' strike bites - PHOTOS

Mr Panyako, on the other hand, insisted that nurses would not go back to work. “The strike was not called by CoG chair Wycliffe Oparanya and the ministry and it will not be called off by them.

“The strike has just begun. We are going to show them that if they dare play with our members’ lives they will have themselves to blame,” he said.

Mr Michael Opetu, Knun deputy secretary-general, said: “Why do governors think they will use other means to demean nurses? We are not going to be cowed by their threats; we will fight them until they implement the CBA. We have been lenient with them from 2017.”

ALLOWANCES

Nairobi, Migori, Kwale and Machakos counties have cleared their allowances, while Mombasa, which had honoured the CBA, withdrew the uniform and nursing service allowances from the January salary.

The nurses have issued an 11-day notice after which they will go on strike on February 18 if the allowances are not paid.

Addressing the press, Knun Mombasa branch secretary-general Peter Maroko said the county government negated an agreement they had on January 17 despite a commitment and proof through payslips that they were going to pay nurses the allowance.

He added that the withdrawal of the allowances caught them by surprise and he wondered who pressured the county since devolved units are independent.

The stuff beyond the scope of handshakes, beyond revitalised cabinet meetings to deliver legacies. The implementation of already signed CBA's!

Long ago on the condition of the Russian working class, Lenin and his red comrades observed

Comrades, Russian capitalist elites have no interest in bribing the workers and peasants with civilization, not with state-sponsored safety net programs like old age pensions, nor soup kitchens; not with cheap credit, nor a functioning health care; neither with a public education system for their children, nor other items necessary for dignity in ones own country.

The Russian worker is as disposable as the dung the capitalists and their aristocratic allies noisily expel after their well-done meals!

It didn't sound that chilling at the time. But soon, it would be the Russian capitalists and arrogant aristocracy being disposed of. In fact the Czar and his family ended up down a pit latrine.

In Kenya today we still do not have the benefit of hindsight to know what is chilling or not. Like when a court asks CBA? WHICH CBA? One knows not today if history's future joke is another Judge asking some today's Big Man: You have rights? which rights?

[jakaswanga]

Uhuru orders nurses to resume work by Friday

Mercy Asamba Posted on: 13th Feb 2019

President Uhuru Kenyatta. President Uhuru Kenyatta has ordered nurses across the country to end their strike and resume work immediately.

In his address, after a meeting with governors at State House, the Head of State told health workers that they have until Friday 8AM to return to work.
He termed the strike as unlawful and ordered the county government and Health Ministry to sack any nurse who fails to turn up to work on Friday.

“As the Commander in Chief of the Kenya Defence Forces, I have instructed National Police Service to take stern action on picketers who may intimidate public servants who intend to go to work. Any nurse who fails to report to work as directed above will be dismissed,” he cautioned.

SEE ALSO :What to do to ensure affordable housing fund gets critical buy-in

Uhuru also accused the striking nurses of disobeying court orders saying it is a requirement of all Kenyans no matter their place in society to abide by the rule of law.

Health services have been paralysed countrywide since nurses downed their tools on February 4, 2019 over a return-to-work formula entered on November 2, 2017. The nurses say it has not been fully implemented.

Now! The commander in chief has all but arrogated himself the powers befitting an state of emergency, albet undeclared!

The Nurses are in breach of court order! Back to work by Friday 15th or be sacked! By order of President and Council of governors! (Even shamba boys and kayamkonos can no longer be treated thus after the 2010 thingy!)

But this feudal overlordship is apparently how the biggest economy in East Africa is being run! Some retro mini dictator of some would-be mini Roman province issuing his miniature decrees!

Infantile to absurd!

2017 CBA is what the strike is all about. Most counties and governors are in breach of the 2017 agreement. They are not even interested in the spirit of it.

–-CBA? Which CBA!?

From the Auditor General's report, these administrations are in the thick of waste, corruption and obvious theft. The 83% of budget Ouru says is going to recurrent expenditure, is nothing but an administrative construction of looting.

Which section of the constitution gives Ouru or whomsoever the power to sack all nurses if they disobey his directive!? Is this not the same Ouru who can not sack even the cabinet secretaries he himself appointed!?

What kind of demotivational creed is this for conflict resolution? A disinterested, boiling and forced-labour nurse preparing syringes to insert into a patient's body!? –--No, sorry sir! I bolt!

OF COURT ORDERS MUST BE OBEYED!

This is when the CiC mocks himself and excels in the role of a public fool.

Rule of law and everybody must obey court orders? –-How many court orders, CiC, were defied in the deportation saga of Miguna Miguna!? And do I remember even a whimper of protest from anybody sworn to defend the constitution!?
And is it not so, that the selfsame villain who trashed the court orders, is the recently promoted prime minister, the president's Mr. Fixit, aka Matiang'i!?

So what gives!?

It is time the CIC specified which parts of the constitution he will uphold, and which are beneath his oath and he shall trash!

Ouru yawa, give us a hint you are still in possession of all your faculties! Go for a tripartite agreement. Involve all parties to the conflict. The crisis in public health is deep, very deep. Public Health Service is as good as dead currently. And corrupt governors are more part of the problem than the solution!

What will the police do, if the nurses report but take 4 hours writing a patient's name!? A GO-SLOW like you never saw!

[jakaswanga]

RECALL: 28th JULY 2017




Uhuru says He has Nothing to do with STRIKING NURSES. The County Governments are Responsible

[jakaswanga]

THE HANDSHAKE AS AN ANTI-LABOUR PACT

Sometimes we seem to forget the political significance of DEVOLUTION to Kenya. It is an anti-centralist tendency. It is part of the instruments that were authored to institutionalise the deconstruction of the imperial presidency. The imperial presidency had reached its peak with the totalitarianism of the authoritarian KADU-turned-KANU chieftain, the One-Party-State Daniel T. Arap Moi. Howbeit devolution which was to be merely one aspect of the process of national political REFORMATION, became the most visible and celebrated venture of the second republic. It diffused general political tension by decentralisation, spreading out corruption and, for a while, appearing to stabilise the crisis of the comprador state. The cash-loop increased its mileage and radius.

Hallelujah the new inclusivity!

But there was,and has been no accompanying reform of the economic fundamentals. Yet it is always the economy stupid. This systemic stagnation is the only thing one needs to take a deep gulp of thought on. Then we see the productive base stayed the same, the economic structure and relations the same, the crisis merely postponed. That is also why many of the companies whose 99-year leases expired, somehow automatically renewed them.

HINT

Swazuri team exit turns focus on tea zone governors

Thursday, February 21, 2019 . By TOM MATOKE |

Summary
Most of the governors won elections on the platform of recovering the huge chunks of land from multinational tea estates whose leases have mostly expired.
Not a single acre of land had been reverted to the communities by the time the six-year term of the first lot of NLC commissioners lapsed on February 19, posing a continuity challenge on the efforts to recover the parcels of land.

Governors of tea producing counties have suffered a blow after the first crop of the National Land Commission (NLC) bosses vacated office on Wednesday without resolving their land issues.
Most of the governors won elections on the platform of recovering the huge chunks of land from multinational tea estates whose leases have mostly expired.

Not yet economic reform thus, and let land reform be a fundamental of it.

INCREASED BUREAUCRATISATION

With devolution the state just became bigger; layers of bureaucracy increased and –-----the FED gone QE and credit cheap, while China too expanded economically and geopolitically wherefore it had loads of capital to export----- loans adlib financed the Corruption Incorporated Syndicate Kenyan became again under the recidivist management of Mwai Kibaki. By the time Uhuruto 'officed' and unleashed another round High Theft (think of the Eurobond) and Intensive borrowing, earlier loans began to mature, a cash crunch loomed, came and soon threw the treasury into its current (deficit) crisis.




HINT

The Treasury has projected expenditure of Sh1.1 trillion on debt repayment in the 2019/20 financial year which starts in July, an equivalent of 61 percent of the total projected tax collection of Sh1.87 trillion.
This means the government will have only about Sh700 billion to meet its recurrent and development budget including running of schools, hospitals, the Judiciary and Legislature, build roads, pay the Armed Forces and public servants.

Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich has repeatedly said that Kenya’s Sh5.276 trillion public debt, equivalent to 52.7 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) as at December 2018, is sustainable.

Ouru's legacy means one word: LOANS.

But that evolves into two words: debt servitude
Because
Jubilee or NASA, the political tandem locking Kenya down in its vice rule now advertised as the magical THE HANDSHAKE, is reducible to a word: LOOTOCRACY. If you haven't done the math, do the Auditor General's reports. It is not such hard homework. (And in my (yesterday's) Saturday the 23rd of February 2019 post, I traced the history of Jubilee corruption since 2013. All in the open space.

BILLIONS STOLEN! ---HERE is a LIST of TOP 20 CORRUPTION SCANDALS under Uhuru’s WATCH,

December 9, 2015, By Harrision Murbi

Read more: jukwaa.proboards.com/thread/9652/corruption-kenya-countdown-bloody-climax#ixzz5gQLSi3aY

Here is a list of more than 24 alleged corruption scandals that have been reported under Jubilee regime “THREE YEARS DOWN THE LINE AND THEY TALK OF 20YEARS TO RULE. CHECK THIS OUT:

Corruption is a looting machine devised by the ruling class to enrich themselves, seing honest toil and sweat to gain wealth and fame –---even if notoriety like SuperStar AKOTHEE---- is a not-done for these parasites at the top.

That crisis –---catalysed by Jubilee Mobutucratism or kleptocracy----- is here now. State organs can not meet the basic salaries of workers in an essential service. Public health is a primary necessity, anywhere any day. Nurses are a backbone of Public Health. But the KDF in Somalia is not a primary necessity, merely another spoils-gathering enterprise to bandits. To maraud abroad, there is always money. Colonialism exported always had its comfort zones for certain interests in the mother country, even if a vassal state like we saw with Portugal before the flowers revolution. That fact was never in doubt.

The crisis in Nairobi bares fangs like these, Agness hissing.

Counties in trouble over nurses' pay

Saturday February 23 2019


Despite the nurses ending the boycott and reporting to work, the Controller of Budget insists that Migori, Mombasa, Machakos and Kwale counties must recover the allowances they paid to nurses.
In a letter written to the four counties Saturday, Mrs Agnes Odhiambo said that, should the counties fail to show any evidence of having recovered the monies paid to the nurses, they will not get funds from the National Treasury.

'NO MONEY'

Mrs Odhiambo had earlier written to the counties directing them to comply with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) circular on nurses’ service allowances.
“County governments should not pay any allowances that are not approved by Salaries Remuneration Commission,” the circular says.
The commission earlier said that counties need about Sh3.5billion every year to pay service and uniform allowances, an amount that was not sustainable.

NoMoney CoB Agnes Odhiambo is DIRECTING counties on how to spend money on the health sector. She is the Budget Czar, now woken up to 'recurrent expenses unsustainable'! And she is waving a big blackmail stick at the CoG!

But this: 'these counties must RECOVER allowances paid to nurses!' is also to suspend county assembly's mandates! (may not be that bad, if you know what MCA's in Kisumu and Homa Bay have been up to, lately!)

But: Is Agnes Odhiambo misquoted –--by these meat wraps----- or is her mind down!? Obviously, Agnes has never gone to a public hospital in Kenya. One who has, will instinctively think this: HOW CAN WE MOTIVATE THE HEALTH PERSONNEL, to do what they are trained to do in public hospitals? How can we save public health from comatose?

But Agnes Odhiambo is like the baroness of a slave farm. Slaves are expendable and disposable. No rights they have. They strike, it is the wheel for bone-crushing execution, penny extraction. No respite. O yes, we bring in doctors from Cuba and nurses from ? to replace our go-slow-prone MTC and Medical school graduates. Problem solved.

Yawa Agnes, Olundi ema obed madiny, wiyi to yaw ndi! (don't be silly, Agnes, be tight downstairs yes, but all open upstairs!)

This cash-crunch and credit crisis, and the governments' identification of labour as the weak link, is a deep and long running story. And it is shaping up like it always does. On the sidelines, hold the following thought in mind: The recent reconciliation efforts after the GREAT SCHISMA OF 1966.

KNUT Rejoins COTU After 53 Years

promises renewed fight for workers’ rights

Protus Onyango Posted on: 25th Jan 2019

After five decades, a giant teachers’ union has rejoined the umbrella body for workers, signalling a strengthening of trade unions at a time they are under siege.

With the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) rejoining Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu), the new force announced the push for a five per cent pay increment for their members as recently gazetted by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Knut quit Cotu in 1969 at the instigation of the then government, which rounded its leaders in an attempt to break their unity.

But yesterday at Cotu headquarters in Nairobi, Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion said the union was rejoining the umbrella workers’ body to enjoy the benefits of a united labour movement.
SEE ALSO :Kenya Tea workers pay dispute heads to UK courts
The teachers’ union has on many occasions taken on the Government with nationwide strikes, but is at times beaten into submission; through strong arm tactics and crippling court orders such as the one in January that blocked the latest push for a strike over pay.

Sossion, also an ODM nominated MP, said teachers were going back to Cotu to redesign their course in bargaining collectively and protect members from exploitative conditions at work.
He said Knut was one of the founding members of Cotu upon the dissolution of Kenya Federation of Labour and African Workers Congress.

The settler state must deal with organised labour. Or FF: the successor to the settler state must deal with organised labour. It must terrorise it. And from that state terrorism, the counterpunch.

That state terrorism of labour and labour's counterpunches, however feeble, is the ball one shouldn't let his eyes off. Those are the shocks from the shifts in the productive equation as factors jostle, doomed to an accommodation.

The rest are side shows however hot they announce themselves.

MINI MOBUTUS IN THE KLEPTOCRATIC PARADISE

From the annual reports of the Auditor General ever since the launch of devolution, there has been no doubt about financial management of counties. It has been a horror show, no less than that at the national treasury in Nairobi. Corruption and waste in Nairobi duplicated itself perfectly at the counties. The CoG, council of governors, is a board of looters, much like the cabinets of Nairobi. Currently between them, 4 CSs are on multi-billion tender kickbacks. Balala, Macharia, Kiunjuri and Rotich (Kerio Valley Development Authority dam), and Ruto Weston Hotel.

But we are all united in the Handshake and there will be no sackings at the top. They are looking out for each other there.

So which organised sector is seemingly opposed to the goodly handshake, the second best thing to the aborted Canaan dream?

The answer is organised labour.

The corruption which wont be fought means the governments of all levels are not in a state to honour their obligations as agreed several years back in CBA's. The recent strikes by nurses are not about NEW RAISES, they are about honouring ALREADY agreed CB's.

OF COURT ORDERS

Ouru Kenyatta was essentially sacking nurses for demanding already agreed points be fulfilled! And there he was flanked by the CoG, the curia of political Mafioso who have eaten the worker's budget.

It was therefore left to the leader of the Nurses union, Seth Panyako, to do the honourable thing. Point out publicly the nakedness of the emperor and his court.

COURT ORDERS!? Obey what!? You Bring back Miguna from Canada first! You rescind your dissobiedence of over 10 court orders first, before you open your mouth to yap about others!

No, of course the president and the Handshake show could not come back on that one. It was a clean kill.

Now Raila the former Joshoua too went on to lecture the nation there is no money! Having had his handcheque he can talk like that, can't he!?

But Hezron Awiti's government is treating doctors like his shamba boys. Work done, no idea when there will be pay! And go back to work again, don't ask me about pay!

Then obviously the shamba boys will be forced by unpaid bills to know the Handshake is bullsh!t!

RECALL: During a recent event at the BOMAS OF KENYA in JANUARY 2019, they were all there decrying corruption.

Anti-corruption speeches laced with leaders’ humour

James Wanzala Posted on: 26th Jan 2019

Humour and laughter broke the tense moments that characterised the close of the two-day national anti-corruption conference at the Bomas of Kenya.

If it was not Attorney General Paul Kihara Kariuki recounting the analogy of fight against rats to the fight against graft, it was former Prime Minister Raila Odinga cooling his heels on Deputy President William Ruto’s official seat.

Ruto and Raila were at a loss when the participants, including President Uhuru Kenyatta, laughed off the cheeky act of Raila sitting on the DP’s seat.

President Uhuru Kenyatta, on Friday, made declarations in the fight against corruption during the National Anti-Corruption Conference hosted at Bomas.
He acknowledged that corruption had become a menace in the country with widespread blame games between the prosecutors and the Judiciary.

He, therefore, vowed to relentlessly work towards ending the vice.

Better late than never you might say, since in 2016 we had a similar ANTI-CORRUPTION conference. The president and his chummy deputy had no cause for worry that time, or did they!? They ridiculed the Auditor General to death! Their dogs like Aden Duale threatened to move in parliament, a motion to impeach then disband the office. But surely, there must have been INTELLIGENCE about the dangerous levels of graft, and that the state was nothing but a LOOTING CARTEL. (Don't know where Haji, Kinoti and Kameru were in 2016, but they are free to go public now, on where they were then and what they knew then.)
In any case President Kenyatta was sure of his alternative set of facts!

No Eurobond cash was lost, Uhuru tells Raila, critics

Wednesday October 19 2016


Mr Ouko said that his work was to simply determine the authenticity of statements already presented by the government concerning the transactions so he can file a final report on the matter.
Criticising Mr Ouko, President Kenyatta said: “Na huyu amesema anataka kuenda kuinterrogate (And this man here says he wants to interrogate) Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Ngai! (My God!) Anyway, you know, you sit back and you ask yourself, are we being serious in what we are doing?”
The accountability summit was meant as an occasion for the government to demonstrate how it is fighting corruption.
However, it was punctuated by accusations and counter-accusations by government officials more keen to defend their respective turfs against allegations of incompetence, and blaming others for the failure to tackle corruption.
President Kenyatta said he had done his part and blamed various agencies for failing to do theirs.

That was after

QUOTE]Raila Odinga names Uhuru Kenyatta’s aide, Rotich and CBK bosses in Eurobond saga


Rawlings Otieno Posted on: 14th Jan 2016

NAIROBI: President Uhuru Kenyatta's Chief of Staff Joseph Kinyua and top officials of the National Treasury and the Central Bank of Kenya top the list of 'persons of interest' that opposition leader Raila Odinga wants nailed for the "missing" billions in the Eurobond saga

Addressing a news conference in Nairobi, Mr Odinga said Kinyua, Treasury's Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich, the principal secretary Kamau Thugge, CBK chairman Mohammed Nyaoga, former CBK governor Njuguna Ndung'u, accountant-general Bernard Ndung'u and CBK's financial markets director John Birech and his financial management colleague Moses Muthui owed Kenyans an explanation on how the Sh250 billion bond was spent.

The opposition leader, who was honouring his three-day ultimatum to give names, said the officials had to be charged of negligence. Odinga alleged the documents of remittances of the money into the country were forged and insisted that nearly half the amount – Sh102 billion—never made it into the country.
At a time when the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has already asked the Director of Public Prosecutions to close the file and ask the Auditor General for a forensic audit on the Eurobond billions, the opposition chief slammed the local institutions for lacking the capacity to unearth official theft of public funds.

SEE ALSO :Ailing State firms gobble up Sh14b

That is how you run out of money to pay ksh. 5000 to nurses!

Imagine Agnes Odhiambo now demanding nurses refund ksh.5000! dues paid to cover 2017-2018!

Omera! these things in Nairobi yawa!


Today we read

Uhuru furious with Cabinet members fingered over graft

Roselyne Obala Posted on: 24th Feb


A furious President Uhuru Kenyatta faced his Cabinet, tongue-lashed them over corruption claims and ominously warned of impending turbulence.

The Thursday meeting at State House was no ordinary one, according to sources who spoke to the Sunday Standard in confidence.

Quite taken aback by claims of massive corruption levelled against the CSs, the Head of State made it clear that he was not taking claims that his own appointees may have shared kickbacks lying down.
“The President was very blunt with the CSs. He was particularly irked by the multi-billion shilling dams’ issue. He told the CSs involved that they should be ready to carry their own cross if they failed to flag out glaring flaws under their watch,” said a source within the Presidency.

SEE ALSO :EACC, police hunt for DCI officers caught soliciting for Sh1 million bribe

As the president was reading the riot act to his appointees, a multi-agency team that had been in Italy for over a week chasing after the intricacies of the bribery web involving the CSs was on its way back home.
The team sought to be enjoined in a case where an Italian firm has filed for liquidation in Rome amid claims that it may have coughed so much kickbacks to government officials to the point of going bankrupt.

CMC di Ravenna is an Italian construction conglomerate that is building three mega dams in the Rift Valley worth more than Sh90 billion. Last year, the company received Sh4.9 billion down payment for the design of Arror multi-purpose dam in Elgeyo Marakwet County.

The team is expected to prepare a detailed report on its findings although advance reports have indicated that four CSs are in for questioning on the matter.

Cabinet performance

SEE ALSO :14 State firms that have lost Sh14 billion

At the Cabinet meeting, the president is also said to have told the Cabinet committee chaired by Interior CS Fred Matiang’i to flex its muscles on Cabinet performance, including delays in accomplishing government projects.

A CS who was in attendance said the president looked quite disappointed: “The president attributed derailed implementation of his manifesto and the Big Four agenda to runaway graft.”
A day after the meeting, Matiang’i led his committee to a closed-door meeting with Chief Justice David Maraga in a bid to unlock Sh30 billion worth of projects stalled in litigation.

“The Cabinet committee has identified prolonged adjudication of these cases as one of the major setbacks in the delivery life of national government projects,” a statement from the ministry of Interior said.
The team that visited Maraga comprised Attorney General Kihara Kariuki, CSs Faridah Karoney (Lands) and James Macharia (Transport), Solicitor General Kennedy Ogeto and Interior PS Kibicho Karanja.
SEE ALSO :MIA beats other airports in visitor numbers

Some of the affected projects include
Olkaria-Lessos-Kisumu electricity transmission line at Sh18.2 billlion,
the Mariakini substation at Sh3 billion,
the Ethiopia-Kenya transmission line at Sh62.854 billion,
the Mwea irrigation development project (Sh9.4billion),
the Kisumu water supply project (Sh3.66 billion),
Lessos–Tororo transmission line (Sh8.8 billion)
and Yatta Dam water supply project (Sh6.5 billion).

In 2015, Uhuru dropped CSs whose ministries had been adversely mentioned in various scandals in the list of shame tabled as an addendum in Parliament. Felix Koskei (Agriculture), Charity Ngilu (Lands), David Chirchir (Energy), Kazungu Kambi (Labour) and Michael Kamau (Transport and Infrastructure) lost their jobs. Later, Anne Waiguru (Devolution) also had to take leave, allegedly on doctor's advice, even though National Youth Service was also embroiled in a Sh791M scam.

and conclude

They are picking on the nurses the way they picked on the Audtor General in 2016 when he said HO! EUROBONDS.

But the difference is, the Nurses are organised labour. But organised or not, poor workers have no financial reserves which can cushion an economic crisis for them. They must protest the circumstances of their poverty. They will, even if God himelf is the president and the minister of finance.

The state terror on nurses today, like the state terror of teachers the other year when we were reduced to pauperS during the long strike, like the state terror of doctors when their union leaders were sent to jail, serve as ruthless lessons of history on power relations. But they also harden the resistance to unequal power, forge new insights into the historic struggle and further teach the benefits of a worker's united front and general labour solidarity.

May be Atwoli and Sossion smelled the coffee. An unrestive base hard pressed and pregnant with a militant tendency. A necessary response to a crisis.
But what can a cash-crunched corrupt government do, but expropriate the people some more!?

That is why Agnes Odhiambo is employed scraping the bones of the nurses! Children of a lesser god perhaps, symptoms of a clueless government perhaps.

FOOTNOTE:

TAMING LABOUR! MERCENARIES WANTED!

Fred Matiang'i owes his ministry of education(steward)ship to ruthless ethnic calculations of the Jubilee power equation! Matiang''i knows it, we teachers know it, and Jubilee knows it. That is why when he replaced the confused professor Kaimenyi, teachers union leadership were quick to remind him political appointees serve at the leisure of their master. 'KNUT is deep. Bethink thee whether you have been hired to uproot it because it stands in the way of a visionless political elite. If a mercenary, be a soldier of fortune with self awareness.'

Since then, Fred Matiang'i has not been in the forefront as public pawn to tame the unions –--like Kazungu Kambi once was. Enter our hottie, Use Me Phyllis!


Dear Philis Kandie, Hellen Wasilwa was here!

Far away in a distant continent, I used to hear tell of a particular kind of lady: the dumb blonde.

I will allow myself a eurocentrist look, take a whitewashed glance at Philis Kandie and the original Hellene Wasilwa, and call them our dumb blondes.

What have they done!?

They have been hired by today's settler class to tame labour unions!

And one has already lived to do a Mea Culpa! I can't wait for Phyllis to come in!


Read more: jukwaa.proboards.com/thread/9430/subconscious-wilson-sossion-knut-tuc#ixzz5gRVSbQxd

NB: EUROCENTRIST is to intone leaders of the biggest trade unions become big men, even leaders of their labour parties, with some rising all the way to premierships when they win the national elections! --we don't want that in Kenya, Eh, Phyllis!

did our Agnes apply?

[jakaswanga]

Here is where the fireworks is, the labour contract under the lens

Bad news for nurses as govt stops permanent jobs over strikes

Monday March 4 2019

Nursing vacancies resulting from natural attrition will henceforth be filled on contract basis, the national and county governments resolved Monday at a summit on issues affecting service delivery amid perennial strikes.

Natural attrition is the circumstance under which employees leave an organisation for reasons that are considered normal, such as resigning and retiring.

The meeting, held at the State Lodge in Sagana, noted the need for lasting solutions to strikes that leave patients paying highly for treatment at private facilities.

In a joint statement on Monday, Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki and Council of Governors chair Wycliffe Oparanya (Kakamega) announced eight resolutions aimed at improving services.

Key among them, according to the statement, was "that any vacancies for recruitment of nurses arising from normal attrition in both levels of government be filled on contract terms".

BIG BLOW
Related Content

Court suspends nurses' strike
Relief for patients as nurses end work boycott
Nurses dig in, say Uhuru order was misplaced
Panyako pardoned in contempt case

This resolution is a big blow to nurses as those on contract have limited benefits and cannot join unions.

Their job security is also at stake, as it is not guaranteed that their contracts will be renewed.

To implement the decision, the Public Service Commission (PSC) was asked to develop a Standardized Contract Framework for engaging the health workers on the terms and conditions of this new arrangement.

The Salaries and Remuneration Commission will be consulted, Ms Kariuki and Mr Oparanya also said.

PUNISHMENT

At the gathering dubbed the '7th Session of the National and County Government Coordinating Summit', officials also agreed on disciplinary proceedings for nurses who did not end their industrial action and report to work on February 15 as ordered.

Nurses yet again went on strike on February 4 in a push for, among others, better salaries, uniform and nursing service allowances and promotions.

A court suspended the strike for 60 days but they remained adamant, with Kenya National Union of Nurses Secretary-General Seth Panyako saying the only way out was the full implementation of their return-to-work formula.

Some did not report to work even with an order by President Uhuru Kenyatta, who directed the Health ministry and county governments to fire those who defied the directive.

As a result, Mr Panyako was charged with contempt of court but let off with a warning.

In 2017, nurses downed their tools for five months while doctors stayed away from work for 100 days in a push for similar demands, actions which cost the lives of many patients.

CONCILIATION

The summit also addressed negotiations between the governments and the health workers, saying they should continue in line with a court order and that all stakeholders must show commitment.

"The Ministry of Health and governors [will] be briefed regularly and updated on the progress made, with a view to ensuring a harmonised position by both levels of government is sustained," the communique stated.

The Labour ministry will continue to perform its role of steering matters on workers' welfare in health and other sectors, Ms Kariuki and Mr Oparanya said.

The officials added that should the 60-day court-ordered conciliation period end without solutions, the national and county governments will take measures to urgently fill gaps in service provision.

OTHER MATTERS

Another resolution was for the Labour ministry to begin to review the law to identify gaps in service provision and for the PSC to develop guidelines on the management of human resources in the sector.

The goal of the summit was to "enhance consultation, cooperation and coordination in the search for sustainable solutions to current and future challenges, based on the provisions of the Constitution, legislation and principles of collective responsibility to respond decisively to prevent, manage and resolve industrial disputes".

As such, it was also decided that statutory and third party remittances will continue in line with the law and that the two levels of government will be consistent with consultations in order not to have differing views on matters regarding nurses' welfare.


Court suspends nurses' strike

Conciliation committee ordered to meet and file a report.
Fri Feb 22 22:45:00 EAT 2019 Relief for patients as nurses end work boycott
Fri Feb 15 12:54:04 EAT 2019 Nurses dig in, say Uhuru order was misplaced
6 days ago Panyako pardoned in contempt case


City clinical officers suspend strike
Clinical officers strike suspension

Nairobi clinicians halt strike for 30 days for talks with the county.

Many countries think nursing is the backbone of a health service, private or national. To maintain quality, and array of incentives or inducements are dished: --more generous loan terms to study (eg) no interest rate on studie loan. Subsidised housing. But most importantly, by several years at work, free specialisations and fast-paced monetary hikes.

You don't want to pay peanuts and get monkeys as the backbone of your healthcare system! --That is an opinion we don't share in Kenya. Here we think a nurse is nothing. And nothing gets paid nothing.