Finally, after five months of industrial unrest, the national strike of nurses and nurses in Kenya ended.
As a result of the political stalemate in the elections and its well known tail, since last June the medical staff of public hospitals have not guaranteed normal work performance, demanding to increase the derisory bonuses for the purchase of uniforms, canteens and other allowances not provided for in their contract of employment.
The more than 20,000 nurses, mostly women, had started strike work in December 2016, with a big demonstration in Nairobi, everything seemed to have returned with the promises of the government's election campaign, but in June distances had become unbridgeable.
Throughout Kenya, abstaining from the work of hospital staff, sometimes combined with sporadic protests by doctors and other categories of workers in the public health sector, have created many problems, especially in large public facilities and for the poor, who could not be allowed access to private health care in urgent and extreme cases.
We do not know exactly the numbers and problems caused by this protracted protest, but the good news is that the agreement has been found, as announced by union president Knun, Seth Panyako, who announced to the press that nurses will return to work in the coming days.