Residents promised services despite medics go-slow threat

The health workers have raised grievances over delayed promotions, pending re-designations, salary delays, and the slow integration of casual employees into the payroll system. They also cited prolonged stagnation in the same job groups despite meeting requirements for career progression.

Medical services chief officer Muriithi Nyaga said the county government has already taken steps to address the concerns, including submitting a budget proposal to the county assembly to facilitate promotions and re-designations.

“The county government of Kirinyaga has noted the intended go-slow by a section of health workers. It wishes to address the concerns raised, while assuring the public that health service delivery across the county will remain uninterrupted,” Nyaga said.

He spoke at the Kerugoya County Referral Hospital on Monday.

The planned go-slow had raised concern among residents over possible disruptions to healthcare services in public facilities.

However, Nyaga said the county remains committed to resolving labour issues through dialogue and established legal structures, while ensuring patients continue to receive essential medical services.

The county has made significant progress in addressing employment concerns among casual workers in the health sector, having already on-boarded 237 employees into the integrated county payroll system.

Nyaga said the workers have been issued with personal numbers and their salary arrears fully paid.

He attributed delays affecting some employees to the lengthy process of integrating workers into the Human Resource Information System (HRIS) and errors in identification documents submitted by some of the affected staff.

Some 138 casual employees are currently undergoing verification before being issued with personal numbers and getting fully integrated into the payroll system.

“We deeply value the contribution of healthcare workers and remain committed to constructive engagement to address workplace concerns. Such engagement must follow due process and utilise legally recognised representative structures,” Nyaga said.

Nyaga said streamlining casual workers has been ongoing for three months following a national directive requiring county governments to migrate casual employees from manual wage payments to an integrated payroll system.

The county government has also taken steps to ensure adequate supply of medicines and essential commodities across all public health facilities.

The county ordered for drugs and medical supplies from the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority in April, and supplemented it through procurement from local suppliers for items not available through the agency.

“As a result, public health facilities across the county are currently well stocked with essential medicines and supplies,” Nyaga said.

Meanwhile, the county assembly's health committee through its chairman Bosco Gichangi urged politicians to refrain from inciting health workers against their employer.

Gichangi, who was accompanied by members of the committee, said the assembly had already received budget proposals from the executive to address promotion and re-designation concerns raised by health workers.

“I can confirm that we received the budget proposal from the executive two weeks ago and we are in the process of reviewing it before it is tabled for approval by the whole house,” he said.

He expressed confidence that the assembly would expedite consideration of the proposals to facilitate implementation of promotions and other pending labour matters, in order to avert any disruption of healthcare services in the county.