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Doctors' strike: Court extends window for deal, KMPDU relentless

A street vendor carries flags as he joins doctors and medical practitioners under the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) in a demonstration April 16, 2024, for key health sector reforms. (Photo: Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)

By Joseph Ndunda and Barack Oduor | 06 May 2024

The Labour court has given doctors and the government another 48 hours to negotiate a deal.

A court has hinted at the reopening of public hospitals by Wednesday as doctors, who have been on strike since March 15, might sign a return-to-work deal with their employers.

In the latest order issued on Monday, Justice Byram Ongaya, of the Employment and Labour Relations Court, said he has considered submissions by lawyers for the parties and has found it necessary to give them one more chance to reach an agreement.

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They must do so by Wednesday before the court resumes hearings in the dispute later that afternoon.

"As parties are on a threshold for concluding the return-to-work formula, they are encouraged to proceed accordingly, in good faith," stated Justice Ongaya.

"Parties are given a final chance to conclude a return-to-work formula by the return date, failing which the court will hear the petitions and determine all pending applications."

Ongaya noted that the parties are at liberty to file their submissions in soft and hard copies so that the hearings can continue should there be no deal. They are also required to file these submissions by 12.30 pm on Wednesday, two hours before the start of the hearings.

The parties in the case include the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists, and Dentists Union, the Council of Governors (CoG), all 47 county governments, and national referral hospitals.

Others are the Health, Public Service, Labour, and Treasury ministries, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), the Attorney General, and the Public Service Commission (PSC).

The standoff between the doctors and their employers, and these other parties, has ground operations in almost all public hospitals countrywide.

Doctors are demanding the implementation of a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) signed in 2017, after a record 100-day strike, but the government has declined to honour it, for reasons including financial constraints. This has resulted in multiple suits by different parties at the Labour court.

Meanwhile, the health crisis appears far from its end, as the KMPDU has vowed yet again that medical workers will continue downing tools until the government meets their demands, the key among them being internships and adequate pay for medical graduates.

KMPDU Secretary-General Davji Atellah told a press conference in Nairobi on Monday that they will not be duped into signing a deal that does not meet their desires.

"We are not ready to go back to work when the government we are supposed to be negotiating with is not ready to honour our demands," Atellah said, adding the government has "miserably failed" to address their concerns and has been "acting in bad faith."

Union Deputy Secretary-General Dennis Misekellah told The Eastleigh Voice that it has invited the government to a meeting on Wednesday to solve their differences and end the industrial action.

"The union has requested the government come for a meeting so that we can seek a solution to the health crisis. We hope the agreement we signed (2017 CBA) will be honoured."