Health Workers at Baringo County Referral Hospital Decry Delayed Pay, Uneven Terms and Persistent Staffing Imbalances

Reports emerging from Baringo County Referral Hospital indicate an ongoing situation in which contracted personnel report recurrent delays in remuneration while they continue to maintain uninterrupted attendance and full clinical duties, in contrast to permanent and pensionable staff who are said to receive more consistent and stable terms of engagement under the county health structure.

The reports indicate that contracted and casual employees form a substantial proportion of the hospital workforce, yet continue to operate under comparatively precarious conditions of service even as they carry a considerable share of operational and clinical responsibilities within the facility.

Questions are also being raised over deductions linked to Social Health Authority (SHA) coverage, with staff reporting that contributions are regularly withheld from their earnings without corresponding activation of benefits, unless supplementary personal payments are made, leaving a considerable number of workers without effective insurance protection.

The reports further point to issues surrounding the administration of SHA remittances and county health allocations, with workers indicating limited transparency in the utilisation of funds despite continued inflows into the county health system, a situation that continues to generate questions directed at the county leadership under Governor Benjamin Chesire Cheboi regarding oversight, accountability, and prioritisation of healthcare staffing and welfare.

The accounts further link persistent human resource constraints to structural and administrative inefficiencies within the county health framework, with recurring reference to enduring staffing deficits and unclear deployment of allocated budgets, which workers say continues to affect service delivery and institutional stability across the facility.