Kenya's public-sector teachers, nurses go on strike

By Andrew Ross

NAIROBI, Kenya

 Thousands of Kenyan teachers and nurses declared a strike on Monday, paralyzing the state-run education and healthcare sectors in capital Nairobi.

Teachers and nurses at government-run schools and hospitals said they would not report back to work until the government met their demands for better pay and improved work conditions.

On Monday, thousands of teachers staged demonstrations in the capital to articulate their demands.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Wilson Sossion, chairman of Kenya’s National Union of Teachers, said public education would not resume in the country until teachers received a 50-percent pay increase.

The government of President Uhuru Kenyatta, for its part, says it cannot raise the $163 million needed to meet striking teachers’ demands.

Health crisis

Nairobi was also hit by a health crisis on Monday when nurses, too, failed to show up for work at state-run hospitals.

Nurses likewise hit the streets of the capital, saying they would not resume their duties until the government addressed their longstanding grievances.

Eunice Ngari, secretary of Kenya’s National Union of Nurses, warned that the public health sector would face total paralysis unless the government met striking nurses’ demands.

“We will not relent,” Ngari said. “We want the government to resolve the issue of delayed pay and allowances and also hire more nurses, who are being overworked.”

Medical patients, meanwhile, were forced to seek treatment at private hospitals and clinics as a result of the nurses’ strike action.