At least 830 patients have died during the 37 days Kenyan nurses have been on strike.

Health professional associations in Kenya have raised alarm over the impact of the ongoing nurses’ strike, warning that the 37-day industrial action has put patients at risk as reports of rising fatalities emerge.

National Nurses Association of Kenya (NNAK) National Chair Collins Otieno Ajwang noted that the prolonged strike has severely affected public health facilities, with reported maternal, neonatal and perinatal deaths being recorded.

Speaking during a joint press briefing in Nairobi on Thursday, Ajwang pointed out that eight maternal deaths, 16 neonatal deaths and 55 perinatal deaths had been recorded nationally between Monday and Wednesday this week.

He also revealed that the previous week recorded 22 maternal deaths, 44 neonatal deaths and 130 perinatal deaths, while 75 maternal deaths and 458 perinatal deaths were recorded in August.

“These are no signs that the crisis is easing,” Ajwang said. He said professional bodies were working to obtain updated data on women delivering outside health facilities.

Further, the chairman reported that nurses constitute nearly 70 per cent of Kenya’s healthcare workforce and are central to service delivery across all the 47 counties.

Ajwang cautioned that the continued absence of nurses from public health facilities has transformed the dispute from an industrial action to a public health and patient safety concern.

“We are now counting deaths. The strike will be over, but the deaths have happened,” he lamented.

He, therefore, called on the national and county governments, unions, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) and other stakeholders to return to the negotiating table and resolve the outstanding issues.

Concurrently, Kenya Progressive Nurses Association (KPNA) National Chair Michael Nyongesa said patients requiring specialised services had also been affected by the strike. He cited dialysis patients among those at risk when they fail to receive regular treatment, saying the absence of nurses from health facilities had compromised access to essential and specialised care.

Nyongesa noted that the full extent of deaths occurring outside health facilities remained unknown because such cases were difficult to capture.

Kenya Paediatric Association President Supa Tunje reiterated that the disruption was also affecting patients who require inpatient and specialised care. Ms Tunje noted that most public health facilities were not admitting patients requiring hospitalization, leaving higher-level facilities to handle cases that would ordinarily be managed elsewhere.

“Most of the healthcare facilities in the public are not admitting patients,” Dr Tunje explained. She said patients requiring advanced or specialised services were consequently unable to access the care they needed.

Equally, she warned, Level Six hospitals might not have the capacity to absorb the growing number of patients seeking specialised care. Dr Tunje said professional bodies were collecting additional data through the health information system to establish the wider impact of the strike.

Meanwhile, the three leaders also raised concern over the effect of the strike on the training of medical and nursing students who depend on public health facilities for mandatory clinical placements.

Ajwang revealed that universities and colleges were experiencing delays because students could not complete the clinical rotations required for graduation.

Consequently, he noted, the disruption had created a backlog of students awaiting completion of their clinical placements.

In an immediate rejoinder, Tunje said the disruption is affecting the wider health system and not only patients who are currently seeking treatment.

The leaders called for urgent intervention by the government, unions, SRC and other stakeholders to end the impasse and restore normal services.

Ajwang gave the assurance that that nurses were ready to return to the wards once the outstanding issues were addressed,

The strike was called by the Kenya National Union of Nurses and Midwives (KNUN) that entered its 37th day on September 3, 2026.

• A Tell Media / KNA reporters , By Sharon Njeru and Wasidia Nakhendo