Clinical officers: These are the eight counties blocking our return to work

What you need to know:

• The union also accused Nairobi and Vihiga counties of skipping court-compelled engagement meetings.
• The medics' union said its members will not go back to work until their grievances are fully addressed.

More than 60 days into a national strike, the Kenya Union of Clinical Officers (KUCO) has accused a cluster of counties of stalling on an eight-year-in-the-making collective bargaining agreement while subjecting striking members to intimidation.

The union said one of those under the spotlight is Wajir, whose county chief, Ahmed Abdullahi, chairs the Council of Governors (COG).

Addressing journalists, KUCO National Chairman Peterson Wachira said eight counties remained holdouts even as the union reported that 39 of the 47 counties had now signed the CBA, up from just 11 when the strike began. They are Marsabit, Wajir, Kakamega, Lamu, Mandera, Isiolo, Uasin Gishu, and Baringo.

"It's very unfortunate that one of those counties is Wajir County, the county where the chair of the Council of Governors is the head, and the person who signed the agreement and negotiated that agreement," Wachira said.

Wachira described what he called a pattern of hostility towards healthcare workers in several counties, including in Makueni where goons attacked demonstrating clinical officers.

"In Makueni, seven of those targeted in the incident were women. In Murang'a, county officials were pressuring Universal Health Coverage (UHC) staff, already confirmed permanent and pensionable, to sit suitability tests as a pretext for soliciting bribes," said Wachira.

The union also accused Nairobi and Vihiga counties of skipping court-compelled engagement meetings.

"On Wednesday, we had a meeting in Nairobi, where the officers from the county government actually walked out of the meeting. In Vihiga, the county secretary called for a meeting only for his team not to appear," said Wachira.

"Clinical officers cover most of the outpatients all the way from Level 2 to Level 6 facilities, as well as most of the specialised services. If you are to go to surgery and have anaesthesia before the surgery is performed, you have a 98 per cent chance that the person administering it is a clinical officer. If you have a problem with your eyes, around 96 per cent of the people you are going to see are clinical officers," he added.

Asked why the eight counties are yet to sign the CBAs, what the Council of Governors (COG) is doing to bring the remaining holdouts into compliance, and whether there was a timeline for implementation, Mombasa Governor Abdulswammad Sharriff Nassir, who is also chairperson of the CoG’s health committee, explained that the non-compliance was being addressed.

"It was a decision of the full council to have counties sign the CBAs. It was not a single county's decision. It was a decision of the full council that this is what needs to be done. Those counties will definitely have to abide. If there are any counties that have not been able to implement it, we will reach out to those individual counties and ask them why. I've asked the departments of legal and human resources at the council to give me a report on the said counties," said Governor Nassir.

The strike is driven by several overlapping grievances, including unresolved employment status. Many clinicians hired under short-term UHC and Global Fund contracts, some dating back to 2009, still lack permanent and pensionable positions or the service gratuities they are owed. There are also complaints about delayed promotions, missing risk allowances and newly hired employees being placed in lower job groups than warranted.

The union also has grievances surrounding a stalled Collective Bargaining Agreement. The CBA took eight years to negotiate and was finally signed in February 2026, but implementation has lagged.

Wachira also raised concerns regarding Global Fund staff, who he said had been neglected alongside UHC workers. Although the Ministry allocated funds to clear nine months of arrears out of roughly 30 unpaid months, these workers had still not been issued permanent and pensionable contracts. Because these staff members were never devolved to county governments, Wachira said full responsibility rested with the Ministry of Health.

He confirmed that KUCO had formally written to the Cabinet Secretary for Health requesting that the Ministry directly absorb the remaining Global Fund staff, given the counties' refusal to do so. He emphasised that the group comprised only about 98 laboratory workers and clinical officers combined, a manageable number for the Ministry.

He added that many of these workers had served since 2009, bringing over 20 to 30 years of valuable experience that qualified them to serve effectively even at the policy-making level.

Wachira placed direct blame on the Ministry of Public Service for the continued strike, saying the enhanced risk allowance, which the February 2026 CBA raises from Sh3, 000 to Sh5,000 this financial year and Sh7,000 next year, remains unpaid because Public Service Principal Secretary Professor Jane Imbunya's office has not adjusted the payroll code needed to disburse it.

This is despite a COG letter dated August 21 requesting the PS to "adjust the Human Resource Information System - Kenya, an integrated digital platform adopted by the Government of Kenya to manage human resource and payroll functions across the public sector", which would allow counties to implement the CBA.

George Gibore, KUCO’s General Secretary, explained that members will not go back to work until the union’s issues are fully addressed.

"We have allowed employees in the counties that complied with our demands to return to work. For instance, last week we cleared Tana River, Taita-Taveta, Kwale, Nakuru and West Pokot, among others, to resume duties. They returned because they agreed to implement what was negotiated, agreed upon and signed. The employer's responsibility is to meet their end of the bargain whenever we meet ours. We will not tolerate inaction from counties, especially when they refuse to fulfil their obligations," said Gibore.

"It is our resolution that members will not go back to work until our issues are fully addressed. Some of the counties have demonstrated a lot of hostility, calling our members, intimidating them and even stopping their salaries," added Gibore.

mchelangat@ke.ntionmedia.com

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