[Patients awaiting treatment at Nakuru Level 5 hospital on June 13, 2017. PHOTO/nation.co.ke]
Governors have vowed not to approve the pay increase demanded by nurses.
The county bosses said on Tuesday that the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) to remunerate the 26,000 nurses will be a huge burden to the taxpayer and added that the demands are untenable.
Council of Governors (CoG) Health Committee chairman Jack Ranguma (Kisumu governor) said they were already feeling the pinch of huge expenses caused by demands by doctors whose strike was cancelled following an agreement to increase their salaries in March 2017.
“If we agree to go by the CBA, then it means that we would be paying around Sh10 billion annually. This is far too much. We have other bills to take care of, not nurses and doctors alone,” Ranguma said.