The staff of several public hospitals in Nairobi, Kenya, started a strike on Friday to demand their salaries and better biosecurity equipment for COVID-19 frontline workers.
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“We are tired of being bombarded every single day with news of how much money we are losing that should be going to fight the COVID pandemic,” said protest coordinator Wanjeri Nderu.
The secretary-general of Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union Thuranira Kaugiria, stressed that peaceful demonstrations would not affect the service in public health institutions.
About 320 doctors in several state-managed hospitals joined the strike. They also request better health insurance and more isolation facilities to assist COVID-19 patients.
Before the demonstrations, doctors tweeted pictures of the faulty personal protective equipment provided by the government. The protests erupted after the removal of the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority’s chief, a state-run office under corruption allegations.
“We decided today to have a peaceful march. We were teargassed more than 20 times. Some of my colleagues have been arrested,” Nderu added.
As of Friday, Kenya’s health authorities registered 31,763 COVID-19 cases, 532 deaths, and 18,157 recoveries from the virus.