Doctors reject governors' divide-and-rule tactics as nationwide strike continues
The doctors were aggrieved by reports of governors using divide-and-rule tactics to intimidate and coerce them from striking.
The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) has maintained that its members will not hold negotiations with respective county governments amid attempts to convince them to end their nationwide strike.
KMPDU’s Upper Eastern branch secretary, Elvis Mwandiki, emphasised that counties should negotiate with the national officials led by the union's secretary general Dr. Davji Atellah, rather than local representatives.
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Mwandiki added that doctors in his region turned down requests to resume work, citing the lack of seriousness by counties in implementing past collective bargaining agreements (CBA).
The medics were also aggrieved by reports of governors using divide-and-rule tactics to intimidate and coerce them from striking.
"In Tharaka Nithi County, for instance, we previously met with Governor Muthomi Njuki and agreed on some issues that are yet to be implemented, such as the promotion of doctors. What is the essence of meeting again when they have not shown any seriousness in fulfilling past promises?" Mwandiki posed.
Besides Tharaka Nithi, Isiolo County was also said to have unsuccessfully approached the doctors' officials for a truce, despite promising to address their grievances.
In Embu, striking doctors were embroiled in a tussle with their employer for allegedly breaching a return-to-work formula arrived at after they boycotted work in January.
Embu Health Executive Ambassador Jamal Abdi Runyeje said it was sad to see the area doctors join the nationwide strike despite the county government promising to address the grievances they had raised in their past strikes.
"We are trying to manage the situation while we await communication from the national negotiating team," Runyeje hoped that the impasse would be quickly resolved.
His recent approach differs from the one taken at the beginning of the nationwide strike where the county government threatened to nullify the return-to-work formula.
On Thursday, a meeting between the national KMPDU officials and the government, seeking to end the standoff that continues to subject patients to inexplicable suffering flopped.
The meeting, which was the second in a fortnight, brought together representatives from the doctors' union, the Ministry of Health, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), the Council of Governors (COG), the National Treasury and the Public Service Commission (PSC) among others.
Despite doctors insisting that they have the right to continue striking, the government says they are in contempt of a past order issued by the Employment and Labour Relations Court.
The court, on March 13, 2024, halted the strike to allow the government and doctors to resolve their impasse. The government thus insists that negotiations would only happen after the doctors call off the strike.
As the strike enters its 15th day today, both parties have continued to maintain their stances in readiness for the case set to resume on Wednesday, April 3, 2024.
Among the grievances raised by the doctors include the harmonisation of their pay by the counties, inadequate insurance coverage, posting of interns, the fulfilment of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, delayed payment of salaries and remittance of statutory deductions.
The doctors want at least Sh569 billion (15 per cent of Kenya's annual budget) allocated for health.
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