Striking nurses stormed health facilities in Nyeri and beat up colleagues who were working.
About 50 nurses went to Gichira, Aguthi and Gatitu dispensaries where they harassed and beat up colleagues and destroyed property.
Mrs Millicent Maina, a casual worker at Gatitu dispensary, said the nurses arrived in three matatus and started shouting and waving twigs.
“We heard the vehicles arrive and went to check thinking they were bringing patients. The nurses jumped out and rushed to the dispensary,” she said.
Mrs Maina said the nurses assaulted colleagues in the dressing room, outpatient and pharmacy, adding they also grabbed her phone and Monday’s takings.
Area police boss Kirunya Limbitu said eight nurses were arrested at Aguthi dispensary and will be charged with robbery with violence and destruction of property. “We arrested eight nurses in a matatu but the other two matatus had left,” he said.
When the Nation got to the health centres, documents, drugs and hospital equipment littered the floor.
Another worker at Gatitu, Mrs Jane Irungu, said the nurses had demanded to see the head nurse. “They were shouting and destroying equipment. They beat up the nurses, saying they were betraying them,” she said.
At Gichira, three nurses on duty fled and hid in a room when they heard their striking colleagues arrive.
Ms Beatrice Mugwe, a nurse, said the intruders searched the place and found their hiding place. “They beat us up, saying we should join the strike,” she said.
“I have never seen anything like this. Our colleagues jumped around beating us scaring patients,” she narrated.
The striking nurses are demanding that their Kenya National Union of Nurses be registered and for 6,000 colleagues on contract to be employed. -Daily Nation
