Medics to strike on Friday for 2017 deal

Doctors have issued a strike notice to protest against failure to honour a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) signed in 2017. 

In the seven-day strike notice issued on Friday last week, the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KPMDU) accused Governor Anyang’ Nyong’o's administration of breaching the CBA and failure to convene an implementation meeting.

By yesterday, Nyanza KMPDU chairman Kevin Osuri said the union had not received any feedback. He said county officials failed to attend a meeting to deliberate on the CBA a month ago.

“We do not know why they failed to show up in a meeting they had organised,” said Dr Osuri.

Working conditions

The union says that the 300 doctors in the county are working in poor conditions and accuses the county administration of deliberate failure to intervene.

“We have reached out to the county administration, but it has chosen not to listen,” said Osuri.

He claimed that the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) pilot project being implemented in the county risked failure if the doctors' grievances were not addressed.

Kisumu branch KMPDU chairman, Onyango Ndonga, said doctors have been trying to reach out to county officials for three months.

“It is unfortunate that healthcare workers in the county are viewed as a burden instead of assets,” said Dr Ndonga

The doctors said it was unacceptable that two years later, no efforts have been made to implement the CBA.

“It’s disheartening," said Dr Hezron Omollo.

County health executive, Rosemary Obara, said she is yet to see the strike notice and that her office was ready for dialogue.

“As soon as I see the notice, we will engage them to avert the strike," she said