According to Paul Bukenya Henry the General Secretary of the Uganda Nurses and Midwives Union, Resident District Commissioners and other state apparatus were threatening and intimidating nurses asking them to abandon the pending industrial action that will be kicking-off on Tuesday. “It is unfortunate that our nurses and midwives who are the largest healthcare fourth in the country over 80% demanding for a better pay, demanding for better working environments, demanding of career growth are being intimidated by the RDCs. I would think the RDCs would be supporting the cause or come up with a solution.” Said, Bukenya Paul Henry – General Secretary, UNMU.

Five days later and the government had not responded to the ultimatum by the nurses and they also complained of threats by the RDCs in different parts of the country. “It is really unfortunate that our leaders who are supposed to help us forge a way forward for better work environments are actually intimidating nurses.” So far the nurses in Bulisa, Hoima, Masindi, Soroti, and Mbale were allegedly being harassed by RDCs. This followed an ultimatum to the government for salary enhancements. This they said would not hinder their determination to lay down their tools should the government keep a deaf ear. “Since 27th of November, the government has not responded to us formally and we still insist that until the government comes up and says its position, the set date for nurses to lay down their tools is still ongoing. The government still has up to midnight Monday to come up with a position so we can revisit the decision to lay down our tools.”

Uganda had an estimated of 21,000 nurses and 12,000 doctors, this meant the nurses dominated the healthcare services. The question of whether this workforce laying down tools won’t affect the country. The nurses said that some emergency staff will stay on their stations to attend to patients as the rest carried on with the industrial action. “We are going to set guidelines for the industrial action in which of course emergency services, for example, those in accident and emergency, ICU, those in Labor suit, those in theatre will stay. However, we are still waiting for a communication from the government until midnight to revisit our action.”

The planned nurses’ strike came days after the doctors’ strike that paralyzed services in government health facilities across the country. The decision to halt the strike was declared after the government bowed to pressure and agreed to give doctors a pay rise and improve the general welfare of the medical personnel.