By Okong’o Oduya
Busia, Kenya: Kenya National Union of Nurses has condemned the case in which their colleagues based in Port Victoria sub-county hospital in Busia county were assaulted by patients on the 2nd of January 2024 who had taken their patient to the facility.
According to the union secretary general, Mr Seth Panyako they are going to withdraw their members from the hospital in the next 48 hours if the perpetrators will not be in police custody.
“As health care workers and leaders, I want to make it clear to anybody who thinks that you can match in any health care facility in the country and mistreat, insult, and assault a health care worker and we spare you. To the police and the law enforcement agents we want to hear within 48 hours that these people have been arrested, and arraigned, and if that does not happen we will withdraw our colleagues from the said facility,” he said.
Panyako also called on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to stop offering theater technician courses and let the courses be offered by the Nursing Council of Kenya as one way of training learners with ethics to guide them in their line of duty.
“I also want to tell TVET to stop training theater technicians and transfer the course to the Nursing Council of Kenya. These people are trained without any ethics and code of conduct and if that does not happen we are moving to court to spot them from such training to avoid producing mediocre medical practitioners,” said Panyako
While in Busia County and Referral Hospital, Mr Panyako appealed to the members of the public to find a way of addressing problems in health facilities without assaulting the medical practitioners.
“We want to tell the community, if you have any problem with any member of our union, address it within the right channels. Every health facility has a channel for addressing grievances emerging from the community or the patients. What we are not going to allow is for anybody to play around with healthcare workers,” he noted.
He threatened to call a nationwide demonstration as a sign of solidarity with their Port Victoria counterparts if the law enforcers would not take up the matter.
According to Busia County deputy governor, Mr Arthur Odera, they have verified that what was recorded on the night of the event is authentic and they have taken the right steps to make sure that those behind the act are apprehended.
“We have since verified that the video is authentic, it was taken in the said hospital and the individuals have already been identified, and since that incident, we have investigated to understand what happened. The people you saw in the video, molested a health worker and destroyed public property which has been reported to the police and Budalangi police station to make sure that the individuals are apprehended and charged in the court of law.
Odera, who is also CEC in charge of the Department of Health in Busia county government, wanted Kenyans to learn to respect public workers and follow the right procedure when launching complaints.
“It is my appeal to the members of the public in Busia to learn to respect public workers and if there is a complaint, there is a civil way to register complaints as a department of health we are happy to receive genuine complaints and we will deal with them as feedback to us.”
“We know as a county government we need to improve our health facilities and we are working on them every day to make sure that there are enough drugs, people, and equipment in all our health facilities, and what we need from the public is encouragement.”
Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Health Dr Susan Nakhumicha while touring Nangina Mission Hospital in Busia condemned the incident adding that a health minister will not allow anybody to disrespect health practitioners stating that the medics are working under difficult circumstances and the last thing they expect from the public is insults.
“Health workers are the pillars of healthcare in the country and as health minister, I will not allow anybody to disrespect them. These people are working in difficult environments, some of them leave their issues to address yours and as patients instead of appreciating them, you want to make noise at them. My call is for the security agencies to take up the matter and let them face the full force of the law.”
In a video that was recorded on 2nd January 2024 at Port Victoria sub-county hospital in Budalangi, Busia county, Ms Venessa Ogema a theater and technology program at The Nairobi Women’s Hospital collage under the company of other people was filmed assaulting healthcare workers at the facility.
