Nairobi, May 14 -- Nurses are truly the backbone of any healthcare system, though the phrase itself is becoming almost a cliche. Every year, nurses worldwide commemorate Nurses Week during the second week of May.

This year's International Council of Nurses (ICN) theme, "Our Nurses. Our Future. Empowered Nurses Save Lives," is both a celebration and a challenge. It calls on countries to move beyond praising nurses for resilience and sacrifice and instead confront a harder truth: Kenya cannot build a stronger, safer or more equitable health system unless it deliberately empowers nurses not only at the bedside, but also in leadership, policy and national strategy.

This conversation is not new. In our earlier opinion piece, "Nurses fully qu...