By Moyiga Nduru
NAIROBI, Dec 3 1997 (IPS)

A nationwide strike by nurses for a pay increase and better conditions of service is spreading to other key areas of the health profession, threatening to cripple Kenya’s state-run hospitals.

The latest group to enter the fray is the Association of Kenya Medical Laboratory Officers. They are expected to be followed by medical doctors soon.

Nurses in this East African nation stopped work about six days ago demanding a 500 percent salary increase to improve their standards of living.

The nurses earn a small monthly salary of about Ksh8,000 (one U.S. dollar equals 60 Kenya shillings), in a country where a one bed-room house in a low-income residential area, where the majority of the nurses stay, costs over Khs5,000 per month and a “decent” meal for a family of four is about Khs500 a day.

To make ends meet, the nurses are asking for a basic monthly salary of at least Ksh30,000 and improved allowances amounting to over Khs54,000.

Not to be outdone, members of the Association of Kenya Medical Laboratory Officers Tuesday joined the strike, demanding a salary increment of Khs30,000 from the present Khs5,500, a risk allowance of Khs10,000 from the current Khs200, and an attractive medical insurance coverage.

Kenya’s Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union also has supported the nurses’ demands for a pay rise, and has urged President Daniel arap Moi’s government to resolve their grievances immediately.

“Bullying nurses back to work can only further depress their morale,” said a statement by the Union, a copy of which was made available to IPS on Wednesday.

The Union rejected the widespread notion within some government circles that medical doctors and paramedics could fill the vacuum created by the nurses. “The strike by nurses automatically means that doctors are technically on strike,” the statement said.

Adding his voice to the issue, Dr Khama Rogo, chairman of the Kenya Medical Association, said that the work stoppage has crippled the state hospitals and patients are at risk.

“From our survey, we confirm that most hospitals are paralysed and patients are either suffering, neglected or being removed by relatives to seek help elsewhere,” he said in a letter to the Minister of Health, Jackson Mulinge.

Dr Rogo also warned that the nurses’ strike threatens to spread to the private hospitals.

The majority of Kenya’s health services are provided by the government. Non-governmental organisations (NGOS) and the private sector provide approximately 40 percent of health services and 33 percent of in-patient care.

Latest official figures show that there are 301 hospitals, 477 health centres, and 2,637 health sub-centres and dispensaries in Kenya.

According to a recent publication by the New York-based Centre for Reproductive Law and Policy, Kenya spends too much on administrative expenses in its health system.

“Government expenditure within the health system is characterised by large administrative expenses and a bias toward curative care at the expense of preventive care,” the publication said.

“More than 70 percent of the public health recurrent expenditure is allocated to staff salaries and allowances, leaving less that 30 percent for pharmaceutical supplies and other non- wage expenditures,” it added.

The 173-paged publication, entitled the ‘Women of the World: Laws and Policies Affecting Their Reproductive Lives’, was co- published by the Kenyan chapter of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA-Kenya).

The strike comes at a time when President Moi’s government is grappling with the scourge of cholera and floods in parts of the East African country.

Kenyan newspapers reported Wednesday that more than 30 patients had died in hospitals around the country as the labour action entered its sixth day.

Despite repeated appeals to resume work, the striking nurses say they will go back to their wards only when their grievances have been addressed by the authorities.

Dr James Mwanzia, the Director of Medical Services, had urged them to resume work while the government looks into the grievances, but the nurses scoffed at the suggestion.

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