Kenya: Tharaka Nithi nurses resume work despite national strike

Kenya is experiencing a new healthcare crisis linked to a national nurses' strike, a recurring movement in a public health sector weakened by the decentralization initiated since the 2010 Constitution. In Tharaka Nithi county, an exception has just been recorded: according to Capital FM, nurses are set to resume work Thursday morning, after the local leadership of their union ordered its members to return to their posts, pursuant to an active court order obtained by the county government. The national strike remains in effect in the rest of the country. This forced return highlights the power dynamics between county governments and health unions since the devolution of health services to the 47 Kenyan counties. Each local administration can now take legal action to have a strike declared illegal on its territory, regardless of the outcome of the national conflict. For Tharaka Nithi patients, this means an immediate return to care; for the national movement, it is a potential crack in the union front. The source, very succinct, specifies neither the initial demands of the nurses, nor the identity of the union concerned, nor the duration of the national strike. This local legal victory could encourage other counties to follow the same path, weakening the union's collective bargaining capacity at the national level -- a hypothesis that only future events will confirm.