Some 188 nurses from Kirinyaga County who were fired in 2019 will not be reinstated.
The nurses were laid off after disrupting services in all the county health facilities by participating in a strike the county government dubbed illegal.
Kirinyaga County Governor Anne Waiguru said her administration has reverted the matter to the Public Service Commission for proper reviewing and decision making.
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This is after PSC through the vice-chair Charity Kisotu early last month authorized the county through the Kirinyaga County Public Service Board to reinstate the nurses after having fired them without following due process.
Waiguru said the county has been put at crossroads following the directive by the PSC and Nyeri High Court’s decision last year that reinforced the county’s action in dismissing the workers.
She faulted PSC for overruling the court’s decision.
“We have written to the PSC to make a proper review of the matter because a decision was made by the high court which is the final decision maker and there is no way any institution can go against it,” Waiguru said.
Further, the governor said her administration is not in a position to absorb the workers as the county does not have sufficient budgetary allocation for additional workers.
“The county engaged other medical workers to replace those who were on strike. So firing those at work to replace them with the sacked employees would be a great injustice,” Waiguru said.
The governor advised the workers to avoid engaging the county in legal battles but instead keep checking with the county government for future advertisement vacancies as the administration is in the process of expanding medical-related programmes.
“A lot of medical personnel will be required as we are in the process of expanding our medical facilities across the county. So we shall be hiring them under that programme,” she said.
Her announcement came a day after the medical workers, through their union Kenya National Union of Nurses, threatened to forcefully resume work, saying that they had served the county service board with a return to work notice.
