Daily Nation, July 13, 2010 A “sweetener” may be in store for nursing graduates willing to work in rural areas. It could include a salary increment of up to 30 per cent plus several other attractive incentives. According to the Human Resource Development Sector Report 2010, the government plans to build and equip hospitals in each of the 260 districts and provide personnel for about 1,000 facilities put up through the Constituency Development Fund. However, it has been grappling with the issue of how to retain health workers, especially nurses, in rural areas. ... Pay

Joyce Mulama, The Nation, July 2, 2010 Nairobi - Kang'atotha dispensary is secluded and surrounded by the shrubs of Kang'atotha Division in the arid and semi-arid Turkana. It is a beehive of activity; patients sit on the benches waiting to be served, some groaning in pain. Others have come to collect medicine. Pregnant women sit at a corner; they have come for ante-natal care. Mothers have brought their small and crying children for immunisation. An old man is seated on the floor with a deep cut, bleeding profusely. The wound urgently needs dressing. The scene is chaotic. Julius Ekeru Lokiyoi, the nurse in-charge, and the only medical staff at the facility, is evidently overwhelmed. ... Kenya

Stanley Wabomba, Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, June 12, 2010 The ministry of medical services will employ 1,500 nurses in the coming financial year in a bid to address the shortage of nurses in the country's health facilities according to the permanent secretary Professor James ole Kiyiapi. The PS said so far, the government has absorbed all the 3,000 nurses who had been hired on contract through various donor funded projects adding that the ministry was in the process of absorbing the remaining 800 nurses on contract. Speaking in Kapsabet, the PS said already the government had budgeted funds for the hiring of the personnel in the just read budget. ... Kenya

Charles Wanyoro, Daily Nation, October 6, 2009 Kenya requires about 24,000 nurses to address the biting shortage, the National Nurses Association of Kenya has said. Association chairman Luke Kodambo said the problem had been occasioned by meddling by the donor community who gave limitations on the number of workers to be absorbed in key public sectors. He appealed to the government to urgently address the deficit as it had hampered quality healthcare provision in the country. ... Kenya

Daily Nation, November 11, 2008 The recruitment of 6,000 nurses is going on and their terms of service will be given priority in next financial year’s budgetary allocation, Medical services minister Anyang’ Nyong’o has said. The Minister blamed the long process taken to sign agreements between ministries and international financial partners for hampering implementation of donor projects. Prof Nyong’o made the remarks when he received the secretary-general of Egypt’s technical co-operation for Africa, Ms Nivine Ashmawy on Tuesday. ... Recruitment

Caroline Mango, East African Standard (Nairobi), September 30, 2006 Nairobi - Nurses have demanded for an increase in their pay, uniform and risk allowances. About 2,400 nurses who were attending the National Nurses Association of Kenya (NNAK) Annual Scientific Conference and general meeting heckled Assistant Health minister Dr Enock Kibunguchi, as they demanded for better benefits. Led by their chairman Mr Luke K'Odambo they insisted that their uniform allowance be increased from the current Sh1,800 to Sh20,000. The nurses were aggravated when Health minister Ms Charity Ngilu skipped the function in which she was expected to address their grievances. ... Nurses

Rodrique Ngowi, Associated Press, June 29, 2006

Nairobi - Nurse Carolyne Mujibi went to work in Kenya's largest hospital after her father died there - from nursing neglect, she believes. Too much work, too little pay and an assault by a frustrated patient chipped away at her desire to try to make a difference in Kenya.

She is preparing to leave to go work in the United States, hoping for greater job satisfaction and more material rewards, and joining a brain drain from the developing world to the West that experts worry is only making it harder for Africa to pull itself out of poverty. ... African

Katie Nguyen, Reuters, February 28, 2006

Nairobi - In a dimly lit ward at Nairobi's Kenyatta Hospital, Florence explains why she has lost heart in what was once a revered profession.

Shutting the door on fretting relatives who wander the corridor with steaming pots of porridge for the sick, she says it was all so different when she qualified 20 years ago.

"We really felt appreciated then," says the matronly figure in a neatly starched white cap and navy blue dress. "Now, I always tell my daughters nursing is not the best. Pay is not good and the patients are many." ... Underpaid

Mike Mwaniki, The Nation, February 23, 2006

Nairobi - More than 1,600 medical workers who were laid off last year, yesterday asked the Government to honour its reinstatement promise.

At a meeting in Nairobi of the National Nurses Association of Kenya, they called on Health minister Charity Ngilu and her Finance colleague, Mr Amos Kimunya, to give them their jobs back immediately.

Last month, Mrs Ngilu said they would soon get their jobs back, saying that the dismissal of nurses and clinical officers had adversely affected hospitals countrywide. ... Give

Juma Namlola, The Nation, February 13, 2006

Brain drain and attrition through death are the main obstacles to provision of quality medical services in East, Central and Southern Africa, a regional conference heard last week.

The 42nd regional conference for the East, Central and Southern African Health Ministers held in Mombasa, Kenya, was told that the region was losing its top medical staff through migration to America and Europe, where they get attractive salary packages. ... Africa

Distressed nurse, Kiambu, Daily Nation, January 18, 2006

This is a response to Paul Redfern's article on migration of Kenyan nurses to the United Kingdom (DN, December 22).

In my view, nurses from Kenya should not be barred from taking jobs outside the country. They should, in fact, be supported to look for employment outside Kenya.

More than 1,000 nurses graduate from colleges, both private and public, each year. The Government, being the main employer, does not employ nurses or health workers, and when it does, only a small number is employed. ... Unemployed

Paul Redfern, Daily Nation, December 22, 2005

London - Dozens of Kenyan nurses were employed in Britain over the past 12 months despite a ban by the UK government on them working in the National Health Service.

A code introduced by the British government banning the employment of nurses from sub Saharan Africa continues to be avoided with large numbers of Kenyan nurses working in the private sector instead. ... No

Daily Nation, December 17, 2005

The Government gave a strong hint yesterday that the more than 1,600 medical workers sacked recently might be reinstated.

New Health permanent secretary Hezron Nyangito admitted that the sacking of the nurses and clinical officers had adversely affected services in health facilities countrywide.

"Health minister Charity Ngilu is scheduled to address a Press conference on Monday on this contentious issue. I do not want to pre-empt what she will say," Dr Nyangito told journalists after touring Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi yesterday. ... More

Ben Singer, East African, December 12, 2005

Kenya's health care system has lost thousands of nurses to foreign countries in the past five years. New data from the Nursing Council of Kenya, show that nearly 3,000 locally trained and certified nurses registered to work in foreign countries between 1999 and 2004.

The numbers, the result of a three-year project between the Nursing Council, the Ministry of Health and American Emory University, indicate more and more nurses have been emigrating in recent years, the vast majority to the UK and US. Nursing experts say many of the leavers are the most experienced and best-trained. ... 3,000

Daily Nation, December 12, 2005

Two health centres in Buret have been closed after five nurses running them were sacked.

District medical officer of health Edward Serem yesterday said the nurses at Saruchet and Butik centres were dismissed two weeks ago. They had been hired on contract.

Mr Serem said the district had a shortfall of 80 nurses and "it would be difficult to deploy some of the staff to these facilities".

The health centres will remain closed indefinitely. ... Nurses