Services have been badly affected at Kenyatta National Hospital after nurses went on strike for the second day in a row, leaving many patients stranded.
The strike has also affected operations at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, as nurses continue with protests demanding better working conditions.
Nurses continued demonstrations in hospital grounds on Tuesday as part of their demands. The nurses insist that they shall not return to work until their grievances are sorted.
Strikes started on Monday in the wake of calls from Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN). As per the union, nurses were warning of strikes in case of failure of action against their grievances.
Attempts to resolve the strikes have fallen flat. The acting chief executive of the hospital met with nurses on Tuesday in an effort to resolve the strikes.
However, this proved futile as the talks broke down after nurses walked out of the meeting citing lack of commitment from the side of management.
Within the hospital, things have not been easy either, where patients have had to wait for prolonged periods and some services within wards, clinics, and emergency units have been affected.
The nurses have also complained that they are weary of the existing problems, with them citing failure to pay salaries on time, employing employees on casual basis for many years and having issues accessing pension schemes.
The above, the nurses claim, left them without job security and access to all the advantages associated with being a formally employed employee, while others pointed out delayed payments of their salaries.
KNH at the moment employs 2,300 nurses, lower than the recommended 2,800.
Due to this problem, nurses are now saying they are unable to serve enough patients due to staffing shortage, where in some wards, one nurse handles up to 40 patients, while in ICU, one handles more than one patient.
The hospital administration has admitted that there are issues and are still in discussions with the concerned parties from the government and staff members.
For the meantime, patients are losing most from the ongoing situation.
