Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has received Shs 73 Million from the Ministry of Health for allowances of nurses carrying out the covid-19 vaccination exercise.
Last week, nurses deployed at several KCCA vaccination centres shunned the exercise protesting the non-payment of their allowances.
The nurses are entitled to a daily allowance of Shillings 5000, which is meant to facilitate their movement. However, the nurses had gone for a week without the payment of their allowances.
They also note that the Ministry of Health was non-committal on when they will get the allowances.
Robert Kalumba, the Spokesperson of KCCA says that they received the money yesterday and the nurses will receive their arrears on their accounts.
According to Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the Spokesperson Ministry of Health, the 5,000 shillings allowances was approved by the Ministry of Public Service. He adds that the Ministry together with the respective local governments is in charge of paying nurses’ allowances.
Last week, the Uganda Nurses and Midwifery Union (UNMU) had threatened to mobilize nurses to strike over the lack of allowances.
At some of the vaccination centres in Kampala, some of the nurses decided to stay away for the entire week due to a lack of facilitation.
Kiplangat Cherop, the President of the Uganda Nurses and Midwifery Union had made various attempts to get an explanation on the delay of the allowances from the Ministry of Health in vain.
With over fifty vaccination centres in the city centres, only 2.3 million doses have been administered so far. By the end of September, the country had vaccinated less than five percent of the targeted population.
-URN
I hope that each nurse will get an allowance.