Health workers have defended their ongoing strike, saying they downed their tools in solidarity with governors and to compel county governments to implement a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that has already been negotiated and registered as a court order.
Speaking during an interview with a local TV station on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, the Kenya Union of Clinical Officers chairperson Peterson Wachira, said the industrial action involved several health unions and was not limited to nurses and clinical officers, as widely perceived.
“We are on strike because the governors went on strike, and we followed them. So, we are in solidarity with our governors, and not only clinical officers,” the union official said.
The official said the Health Union Caucus brings together seven unions in the health sector, with doctors being the only major group that has not joined the strike.
“It’s only the doctors who are not on strike. I know it’s being projected as if it’s only the nurses, but the nurses actually joined later. We started,” the official said.
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According to the union leader, clinical officers are specifically striking to push county governments to honour an agreement reached with health workers and formalised through a court order.
“I’m saying it’s the governors who are on strike, especially as regards to us as clinical officers. We are on strike to enforce an agreement we made with them, an agreement that is registered and is an order of the court,” the official said.
Previous strike and how it began
The official recalled that health workers had previously gone on strike on December 23 last year over the same grievances before a return-to-work agreement was reached on January 28.
The agreement was expected to pave the way for the signing of a CBA on February 2 at the Council of Governors (CoG) headquarters.
“On 28th of January, there was a return-to-work agreement. The return-to-work agreement was ushering us into a CBA signing on the 2nd day of February,” the official said.
The union leader said the signing ceremony was attended by county officials and was widely publicised, but only a handful of counties eventually signed the agreement.
“If you remember, all the media stations were invited, there was a very colourful ceremony at CoG where we were signing CBAs, only later to realise that only about four counties actually fully signed the CBA,” the official said.
The official accused some county officials of attending the ceremony without signing the agreement despite having no objection to its contents.
“The rest came, took tea and mandazis, the officers who came, and went back home. When you ask them, ‘Do you have a problem with the CBA?’ ‘No.’ ‘Why haven’t you signed?’ So we are having now to follow them up to sign, when they had the opportunity to sign centrally,” the union leader said.
The official explained that the CBA is signed by county secretaries, County Executive Committee Members and chief officers, and witnessed by county attorneys.
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“It’s signed by the county secretaries, the County Executive Committee members, the Chief Officers, and witnessed by the County Attorney,” the official said.
The union leader identified Garissa, Mombasa and Nakuru among the counties that had signed the agreement during the initial ceremony, while noting that they could not immediately recall the fourth county.
The official said progress had since been made, with about 16 counties having their agreements forwarded to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), while a similar number had signed but were yet to receive letters of no objection.
“We have about 16 which have been taken to SRC. We have about the same number which has signed, yet to be taken for a letter of no objection,” the official said.
Other counties, the official added, were yet to sign the agreement, prompting health workers to maintain pressure through the strike.
“And the others are there waiting for us to go to their county so that they can sign. So we remain on strike until they see us so that we can be able to sign,” the union leader said.
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The official maintained that the negotiations had already been concluded and that the SRC had given the go-ahead, arguing that the remaining challenge was implementation by individual county governments.
“Simply, the negotiation was done, SRC gave the go-ahead, the document is there, the CoG secretariat is very frustrated because they expected them to come and sign,” the official said.
