Nurses Salary In Kenya (2021)

You might have been wondering what the salary of registered Nurses In a country like Kenya is, and also if they receive certain allowances either annually or on a monthly basis. It is no problem, as this article will explore all that concerns Nurses salary in Kenya, as well as Allowances allocated to them as incentives.

First of all, it should be noted that nursing is a very noble profession, and nurses deserve the best for their service to humanity. These set of people need to be constantly encouraged with not only verbal praises but also financial incentives so they can be better. Nurses save lives, and they help promote the well-being of people. Therefore, by ensuring their own well-being, they can concentrate more on their profession and have no need of being divided just to get money to take good care of themselves. Additionally, if they earn reasonably well, they will be encouraged to take personal development to a higher level – where they learn more things that will help humans get much better.

Unfortunately, it appears Kenya still has a lot to do to ensure the financial satisfaction of nurses, as those practicing the profession in the country have been agitating for better pay for a long time now.

Nurses Salary In Kenya

GROUP G

The Basic Salary in This Category – Kes16,692
What Was Agreed To Be Paid Under CBA- 23,369

Note: As things stand now in the country, the maximum salary in this category is still kes 21,304. However, if the CBA agreement is implemented, then it will go up to kes 29,826. Therefore, nurses in the Group G category can’t earn above kes 21,304 as salary.

JOB GROUP K

The Basic Salary in This Category – kes40,000

JOB GROUP R

The Basic Salary in This Category – Kes109,089
What Was Agreed To Be Paid Under CBA – kes136,361

Note: As things stand now in the country, the maximum salary in this category is still kes144,928. However, if the CBA agreement is implemented, then it will go up to kes181,160. Therefore, nurses in the Group G category can’t earn above kes144,928 as salary.

Having clarified this, let’s now highlight what nurses in Kenya earn, as well as their allowances.

Nurses Allowances In Kenya

After highlighting the salaries of nurses in Kenya, let us now move to the category of their allowances. In case you are wondering if they also enjoy certain allowances, the answer is yes. However, we should know that the union have pushed for an increase in allowances too.

House Allowance

Nurses in Kenya, as things stand now , are allowed a house allowance that is in the region of kes3,500. Although the amount is not really uniform, it should be noted that other can’t go beyond kes15,000.

Extraneous Expenses

As things stand now in the country, this ranges from between 15,000 and 35,000 (depending on various factors, especially the job group). However, when the CBA has been implemented, irrespective of what job group a nurse fall under, they will receive an additional kes5,000

Health Rish Allowance

Nurses in Kenya, as things stand now , are allowed a health risk allowance that is in the region of Kes3,850. However, when or if the CBA has been implemented, irrespective of what job group a nurse fall under, they will receive an additional kes5,000

Uniform Allowance

Right now, Nurses in Kenya are allowed a uniform allowance that is up to Kes10,000 annually. Nevertheless, if the CBA is eventually implemented, the amount will become Kes50,000.

Commuter Allowance

As things stand now in the country, this ranges from between kes4,000 and kes14,000 (depending on various factors, especially the job group). Nevertheless, if the CBA is now implemented, the amount will go up by between kes15,000 to kes25,000 each month.

There is a union for nurses in Kenya known as Kenya National Union Of Nurses (KNUN), and they have become the mouthpiece for those in the profession. They, in a bid to promote the interest of their members, have embarked on different industrial actions. However, despite that the actions have led to the death of some people in the country, it appears the government isn’t ready to intervene positively.

If nurses in Kenya are earning as much as their counterparts in some other places in the world, things will have been much better, and there won’t have been need for cases like the 2017 strike which forced the county governments to struck a deal with the nurses (but the agreements are yet to be implemented)

Many times, politicians usually complain about the unavailability of money to fund the demands of the nurses in the country. For instance, during the incident in 2017, one of the county governors came out to state their powerlessness in honour the demands of the nurses, saying that while he empathize with the nurses, what they want will have a large effect on counties.

Is the President not aware of these issues? Of course, he is. For instance, after the strike, President Uhuru Kenyatta gave an order that the health workers should get back to work or will be sacked. According to him, it is not pleasant to see nurses in the country not working as they go contrary to the order of the Employment court.

The Nursing Profession Should Be Revived In Kenya

Actually, certain things might be strange to nurses in some countries because they really cannot relate. The normal system should make the nursing profession one that belong to heroes, as these selfless individuals not only provide good care for those hospitalised, but they pass through various challenges to do what they should do. Imagine being under severe pressure and then you have to give injections, deal with psychotic patients, and so on and so forth. The right thing is actually to take good care of these people.

There are still not enough nurses in Kenya as things stand now, and despite having to work harder, they are still subjected to fighting constantly for better terms. There are some hospitals in Kenya that are operating with double the number of patients they should have.

Apart from the issue of low pay, nurses in Kenya also face other challenges like, being harassed by patients. A female nurse might be subjected to dealing with over 100 psychotic patients (majorly males), imagine what will likely happen to the poor woman. In fact, there are reported cases where these patients harass the nurses. Unfortunately, according to one of the stakeholders in the country, even after reporting, nothing was done about it.

On a normal ground, what was recommended was that in a psychiatric facility, the nurses to patient ratio should be 1:10. However, in some Kenyan hospitals, the case is not so, which means the system won’t move without a glitch.

Indeed, a handful of things need to be revived as far as the nursing profession is concerned in Kenya. For instance, despite official records exposing that there are about 51,649 registered nurses below 60 in the country, it is unpleasant to note that not all of them are actively carrying out their assigned duties (in fact, about half of them are not active). So, nurses in Kenya works overtime compared to their counterparts in some other countries.

Related:

Just as stated earlier, one large reason nurses must be adequately paid is so they can focus much better on their duties without distractions. However, there are some nurses in Kenya that, to take good care of themselves and their households, they have no choice but to indulge in other things. In fact, some of them complained of how, at times, they don’t have time for their loved ones because they are running from one place to another just to earn a decent living.