The doctors strike in Kenya looks set to continue as negotiations between the medical union and government have fallen through, pouring more misery for thousands of patients who have endured over six weeks of industrial action.
The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) Deputy Secretary, Dennis Miskellah said negotiations have stalled. He told journalists, “The talks collapsed yesterday. Right now, we are just chilling and resting,” he said. He added that “they called us late for meetings that went up to midnight or 4am just trying to tire us out.”
The Union had embarked on a strike to demand increased pay and particularly the implementation of an agreement it reached with government in 2017.
However, a Labour Court in Nairobi ruled last week that an agreement must be reached by the April 19 for doctors to return to their jobs.
Amongst several other issues, the major bone of contention is a decision by the government to cut the salaries of medical interns, who constitute about 30% of doctors, according to KMPDU.
In the 2017 agreement, a deal was reached to pay the interns a monthly stipend of 206,000 Kenyan shillings ($1,530), but the government now says it is unsustainable and instead slashed it to 70,000 shillings ($530). The doctors are adamant they won’t return for talks until this decision is reversed.
“The strike will only end with our issues addressed or a framework for addressing them put in place,” Miskellah said.
“We realised that even if we talked about everything else and not talk about the intern issue, the strike will never end,” he added.
Strikes over working conditions in public hospitals happen frequently in Kenya. The strike preceding the 2017 agreement lingered for hundred days, causing the deaths of dozens of patients.