Today, the quiet hallways of public health facilities became a stark symbol of a deepening rift between the county government and its medical professionals.
After a 21-day cooling-off period yielded no results, the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) officially pulled the plug on services.
While Governor Gladys Wanga’s administration has made some headway by addressing promotions and resignations, steps that usually keep a workforce happy, they’ve hit a massive wall regarding the actual bank balances of their staff.
According to Dr. Rodgers Otana, the local KMPDU chair, the county is sitting on roughly Sh7 million in salary arrears and another Sh6 million in uncollected union remittances.
For the doctors on the ground, a promotion is a nice gesture, but it doesn't pay the rent or sustain a family when years of back pay remain in limbo.
The frustration isn't just about the current month's paycheck; it’s about a pattern of neglect.
Dr. Onyango Steve, the Nyanza regional chair, highlighted a grim reality: many of these medics have been chasing money owed to them since 2021.
Working in an understaffed environment is taxing enough, but doing so while being financially squeezed has pushed the staff to their breaking point.
Adding fuel to the fire, union leadership has pointed toward arbitrary payroll removals, essentially making people vanish from the system without due process.
The message from the KMPDU is uncompromising: no pay, no work. Until those arrears hit bank accounts and the unfair labor practices stop, the doors to public clinics will remain largely shut.
For the residents of Homa Bay, the hope is that a middle ground is found before this administrative showdown turns into a full-scale humanitarian crisis.
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