Government says that staff sacked for defying recall order will be replaced by unemployed nurses and health professionals
Kenya's government has fired 25,000 striking nurses and health workers, saying they had defied an order to return to work and were placing patients' lives at risk.
"All illegally striking health professionals, who defied the directive … to report back to work, have been sacked," government spokesman Alfred Mutua said on Thursday.
"Twenty-five thousand of these officers have, as of this morning, been deleted from the payroll … All qualified health professionals, who are unemployed and/or retired have been advised to report to their nearest health facility for interviews and deployment starting tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock," he added.
Thousands of nurses and other health professionals went on strike last week in a dispute over allowances and benefits, halting operations in many hospitals around the country.
As reports mounted of patients being neglected, the two main unions met the government on Sunday and agreed to return to work, but many strikers rejected the deal.
The Daily Nation newspaper reported on Thursday that a mother and her newborn son had bled to death on Tuesday outside a dispensary in Kwale County on the Indian Ocean coast after health workers refused to treat them.
"What is the use? Why should we have hospitals and personnel? Why was my wife left to die just like that?" Chaka Kadide, the husband of the dead woman, 35-year-old Chari Katana, told the paper.
Frederick Omiah, a member of the Kenya Health Professionals Society, said the government's decision had set up a "very ugly scenario" and he feared strikers would continue protests in Nairobi and elsewhere.
"This is going to make an already delicate and volatile situation worse. Most surveys indicate the workers are not back at work … when somebody is wounded if you add another injury, they will get more infuriated," he said.
Mutua said there would be no problem replacing the sacked workers. A consultative team set up by the government to look into their grievances will continue its work. "We have over 100,000 to 200,000 health professionals looking for work today … There will be a lag of a day or two … but it is better than letting people die on the floor, at the gate, or suffer in pain," Mutua said.
The Kenyan  has dismissed 25,000 striking health workers, mostly nurses, citing failure to heed government orders to recommence work and concern for the welfare of hospital patients. Speaking on behalf of the government, Alfred Mutua stated the workers were dismissed "illegally striking" and "defying the directive ... to report back to work", which he called "unethical". The government asks that "all qualified health professionals, who are unemployed and/or retired have been advised to report to their nearest health facility for interviews and deployment", Mutua stated.

The workers, who had been on strike for four days, were wishing to have improvements made to their wages, working conditions, and allowances. The strikes have caused a significant number of Kenyan hospitals to cease operations. According to Kenya Health Professionals Society spokesperson Alex Orina, the average monthly wage plus allowances for health workers in Kenya is 25,000 (193, 302 or 230) approximately. With an increasing number of reports of patients neglected in hospitals emerging, two trade unions met with the Kenyan government yesterday and negotitated a return to work, although a significant proportion of demonstrators defied the agreement, '''' reported.

Orina told '''' the dismissals were "cat-and-mouse games, you cannot sack an entire workforce. It is a ploy to get us to rush back to work, but our strike continues until our demands are met". Frederick Omiah, a member of the same society, believed the government's actions would "make an already delicate and volatile situation worse", expressing concern that demonstrations may continue in the capital , amongst other locations. Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union chairperson Dr. Victor Ng'ani described government actions as "reckless".

Mutua said the health workers were "no longer employees of the government" and had been eliminated from the payroll. While Ng'ani told the BBC of difficulties with finding other workers as skilled and experienced, Mutua reportedly stated that this would not be an issue. "We have over 100,000 to 200,000 health professionals looking for work today," Mutua commented. "There will be a lag of a day or two ... but it is better than letting people die on the floor, at the gate, or suffer in pain".