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"id": 340375,
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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, as of now, the hospitals that first suffered were the Kakamega Provincial General Hospital, Nyanza Provincial General Hospital, Mombasa Provincial General Hospital, Machakos General Hospital and Kajiado District Hospital. Since then, however, nurses have been going back gradually to these hospitals. As of now, the situation has improved in both Nyanza Provincial Government and the Mombasa Coast General Hospital. To date, the worst affected areas are Western, Coast and Central Provinces. Only few hospitals in Nyanza and Eastern Provinces are affected. In Nairobi, two hospitals were affected, but they have all come back to normal operations. In North Eastern, not even a single hospital has been affected. In Rift Valley, only three hospitals remain affected to date. It is important to note that these nurses’ leaders have used very illegal measures to compel nurses who are working to join the strike. On Friday 7th December, 2012, a group of over 100 people led by Jeremiah Maina, Josephinas Musundi, Seth Panyako and Julius Mwema invaded Mbagathi District Hospital disrupting all activities and services and destroyed Government property of unknown value, including breaking of the door to the office of the Director of Medical Services at Afya House. The matter was reported to Kenyatta National Hospital Police Post on the same day, statements were recorded and police visited the scene. But to date, no arrests have been made. On Saturday, 8th December, 2012, the four top officials mentioned above were arrested in Meru while trying to disrupt services of the hospital. They were later released in unclear circumstances and have not been arraigned in court to date. On 11th December, 2012, vigilant police at Kisii broke an imminent invasion of Kisii District Hospital where services are being rendered normally. The hospital is still working peacefully and the workers there have not joined the strike. Police have also acted swiftly to stop disruption of services in several hospitals, including Siaya, Nakuru, Nanyuki and others. Other hospitals have security in place. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, on 14th December, 2012, this year, I issued a press statement to all nurses to report back to work since all hospitals have vigilant security. By yesterday, a total of 3,745 nurses had not reported to work compared to a total nursing force of 13,200 in the Ministry of Medical Services, including Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) and Moi Teaching and Referral both of which are working well without disruption. My Ministry, therefore, plans to replace these absent and defiant nurses who have deserted duty. I want to note that there are over 7,000 trained and unemployed nurses in the country who can take their places immediately. This country has a Constitution and rule of law and, indeed, there are procedures to register any union. Until and unless an organization has exhausted those processes there is no need to go on strike. A strike action in the labour movement has a very specific role that should not be abused by anybody. Finally, the organizers of the strike seem to be operating in total disregard to the law. We have witnessed damage to property, threats to individuals and forceful removal of nurses peacefully conducting their daily work in our hospitals. While the police have protected hospitals no one has been arrested and arraigned in court despite the crimes already committed by these individuals. The registration of the union and issues related thereto, have been comprehensively dealt with by the Ministry of Labour, in the letter to the Office of the Prime Minister dated 11th December, 2012."
}