KMPDU alleges hacking on suspension of Occupy MOH protests

KMPDU Secretary-General Dr Davji Atellah during a media briefing on the state of health facilities and workforce in the country on October 15, 2022.[Jonah Onyango, Standard]

Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) has denied calling off today’s planned protests meant to push the government into posting some one thousand five hundred intern doctors.

According to the union’s Secretary General, Davji Atellah, an unauthorised entity seized control of the organisation’s official X handle before publishing a misleading protest suspension announcement.

“Reports circulating to the effect that #OccupyMoH has been suspended, is false. The union handle has been compromised and we are trying our best to regain control and clean it,” he said.

“We remain strong. We remain focused,” he added in an X post.

KMPDU, in a letter addressed to Nairobi Area Regional Police Commander, gave notice of a day and night sit-in at the Ministry of Health headquarters, in Afya House, starting today, Monday July 8,2024.

However, an early morning tweet appeared to suspend the planned protests citing “ongoing discussions” and “commitments” from the government to deploy the interns as agreed in the doctors’ 2017 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

The announcement was promptly met with backlash necessitating Atellah’s clarification.

“My colleagues currently leading KMPDU should realise that the issues fronted for #OccupyMoH goes beyond labour struggles. They are also health governance issues,” remarked Dr. Ouma Oluga, a former Secretary General of the organisation.

A Return to Work Formula agreement signed on May 8, 2024, between the government and the union, to end the fifty-six days doctors strike stipulated that the interns be deployed by July 7, 2024.

Some of the affected interns have waited for over two years for the compulsory internship which is a requirement for issuance of a medical licence.

The government is yet to fully comply with that provision of the deal that restored the provision of healthcare services following a near complete paralysis in the more affordable public hospitals.