Health unions in the country have threatened to down their tools if various counties that owe their members' salaries fail to remedy the situation.

The Unions issued a seven-day ultimatum on Tuesday to the devolved units to ensure their workers’ salaries are paid and other statutory deductions remitted.

Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KPMDU) Secretary General Davji Atella disclosed over 40 counties are yet to pay healthcare workers or remit statutory deductions.

Atella said that makes their members miss out on the vital services they offer.

"More than 40 counties are yet to either pay healthcare workers or remit statutory deductions, making our members miss out on the very services they are offering," Atella said.

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He highlighted the blame games being traded between the national government and the county governments over finances since health was devolved as no proper framework has been established to guarantee healthcare services are efficient.

"Kenyans have witnessed numerous blame games between the national and county governments concerning finances, drug and equipment acquisition and employment of healthcare workers," Atella said.

The unions now say the delay in their salaries has led to a compromise in healthcare services in the devolved units and want the national government to release funds to the county governments immediately and establish a mechanism to pay healthcare workers from a central point.

To avoid the conundrum and incessant blame game, the Unions demanded the following: 

  • The National government releases funds to counties forthwith.
  • That the government establishes mechanism to pays healthcare workers directly from a central point. A budget should be set aside for annual recruitment of 20,000 additional healthcare workers as promised to Kenyans.
  • The Ministry of Health constitutes a joint national taskforce to do a health audit and provide long-term solutions to the numerous challenges facing health service delivery in Kenya. 

Other unions in this include the Kenya Union of Clinical Officers, the Kenya National Union of Nurses among others.

This comes as the government is said to be broke and civil servants are yet to receive their salaries, allegedly due to an operational liquidity crunch.

President William Ruto on Tuesday said that his government has managed the civil servants’ pay delay issue and therefore, they will be paid by the following week.