Mareeg.com-Kenya health-care workers at a news conference in Nairobi today.
By Bernard Mulwa
Kenya health-care workers have petitioned the government to convert their contracts to permanent and pensionable establishments failure to which they will take to the streets countrywide beginning next week.
Lead by their union leaders, they expressed their disappointment and blamed the Council of governor’s chairperson Hon. Ann Waiguru for issued a press statement post the intergovernmental summit informing the universal health care staff and the general public that the terms of these officers will further be extended for three years on similar terms as in the previous contracts.
They termed this act is not only prejudicial and discriminatory but also abhorrent in nature and against the doctrine of fair labor practices ordained in the article 41 of the constitution of Kenya, 2021 as well as employment act no 11 of 2007 laws of Kenya on faire labor practice and discrimination.
Healthcare workers like any other professional public servants practice under regulated and well defined scopes dictated by the public service commission human resource policies and amplified under various schemes of service, this guarantees mandatory professional growth including promotions and deserving resignations. Therefore, subjecting them to contractual undertakings will not only be killing their professional growth but will also be disadvantaging them in terms of cadre competitions with their counterparts already in service.
In a joint press statement in Nairobi today, General Secretary, Kenya Union of clinical officers George Gibore (KUCO) said “As healthcare unions, we therefore wish to implore the government to embrace and implement the principle of equality and prohibition against discrimination of workers as enshrined in the constitution”.