NAIROBI, Kenya, March 8 (UPI) -- The 25,000 Kenyan healthcare workers who disobeyed an order to return to work have been fired, the country's medical services minister said Thursday.
Medical Services Minister Anyang Nyong'o said pink slips were on the way to the workers, who had been striking since March 1 and were directed to return to work by 2 p.m. Tuesday, Capitol FM News reported.
Nyong'o said 700 healthcare centers and 2,700 dispensaries in the country are fully operational as some employees had returned to work, but some larger facilities were still hampered, the news agency said.
"We have received relevant reports from all our facilities and we know who is in and who is out. … There must be law and order in government," he said.
"The same Constitution that gives them the rights to strike also gives every Kenyan born or unborn the right to life," he added.
Nyong'o said negotiations with the workers would go on, saying, "We shall negotiate, we shall not fear to negotiate but we are not going to negotiate in fear."
