Medical lecturers threaten to strike

Lecturers at Moi University have threatened to go on strike if they are not paid the allowances they were promised in their return-to-work formula after the doctors' boycott.

The group of professors and senior lecturers from the university’s College of Health Sciences said the Government has ignored their requests.

Officials meet

Speaking after a meeting yesterday with officials of the Kenya Medical and Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU) at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, the lecturers said they would go on strike since they had exhausted all avenues for redress.

Robert Tenge, the chairman of the college's clinical division, said the deal sealed in March 2017 between KMPDU and the Government required that their medical risk allowances be increased.

“The Government, through the ministries of Health and Education, has not honoured this agreement,” said Prof Tenge.

He said it was unfair for the Government to refuse to pay the allowances of about Sh80,000 for each lecturer, yet their counterparts employed under the Ministry of Health were getting the enhanced allowances.

Utter disparity

“It is unfair to see doctors that we train earn more than their trainers, yet we are the ones with the highest qualifications in the field,” he said.

He warned that if the Government does not release the accumulated allowances by January 31, teaching at the medical school would cease and that the doctors would stop attending to patients referred for specialised treatment.

His sentiments were reiterated by union's national secretary general, Ouma Oluga, who said his organisation had endorsed the lecturers' decision.

According to Dr Oluga more than 600 medical professors and lecturers from the several referral hospitals would participate in the strike.