Kenya sacks striking health workers

The Kenyan government has sacked thousands of nurses and other health workers who have been on strike since November in support of a pay claim.

A statement from the ministry of health said the move was part of the decentralisation of public health care and from now on nurses should apply to individual hospitals for posts.

It made no mention of the pay claim which President Moi had promised to deal with during his recent election campaign.

The BBC East Africa correspondent says that by going on strike the nurses also wanted to draw attention to the abysmal state of many of the public hospitals ,where, she says, a shortage of funds has been exacerbated by mismanagement and corruption.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service