Thursday June 8, 2017
A woman yesterday delivered her firstborn baby, a boy, in a taxi outside the Garissa County Referral Hospital.
Zahara Ali, 22, went into labour on Tuesday night and was rushed to the hospital.
However, there was no one to attend to her as nurses are on strike.
Ali’s husband Mohamed Noor told the press he had decided to take her to a private hospital when she delivered right outside the facility’s gate.
“I couldn’t believe it. I felt helpless when she started crying. There was nothing I could do but help her to deliver. Thank God she delivered safely a few minutes later,” he said.
The hospital’s 290 nurses have joined their colleagues across the county to demand the signing and implementation of a CBA negotiated between their union and the Council of Governors.
The strike enters its fourth day today.
The CoG has absolved itself of blame and accused the Salaries and Remuneration Commission of delaying the signing of the collective bargaining agreement.
Kenya National Union of Nurses’ acting secretary general Maurice Opetu has accused the governors of being insensitive to their plight.
word kenyans dread
Meanwhile, at the Garissa hospital the usually packed male ward is empty. Relatives have moved their patients to private health facilities.
Noor, 25, urged the government to quickly settle the pay dispute with the nurses.
“No Kenyan would want to undergo what they went through during the 100-day doctors’ strike. The mention of a strike by healthcare providers sends chills down the ordinary Kenyan’s spine, especially for those who cannot afford to take their loved ones to private hospitals,” he said.
Richard Nyambwegi, a farm worker who was operated on last Friday, said he has nowhere to go and there is no nurse to dress his wound.
Writhing in pain he urged the relevant authorities to end the strike as many Kenyan lives are at risk.