UhuRuto remain silent as medics’ strike enters day two

Patients lie unattended in Ward 5 at Kisii Teaching and Referral Hospital on the second day of the doctors and nurses' strike. Some patients were transferred to private hospitals in the region. PHOTO: SAMMY OMINGO/STANDARD

President Uhuru Kenyatta, his deputy William Ruto and the country’s top political leadership remained silent yesterday as Kenyans continued to suffer over the doctors and nurses’ strike. And there was a ray of hope last night after Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu said talks on ending the crippling strike were progressing well and that a solution might be found today.

“However, we have not reached a point where we can say reprieve can be found for the suffering Kenyans,” cautioned Mailu. County governments resorted to desperate measures to stem the suffering, even as the President and his deputy visited Ukambani on a two-day tour and Opposition leader Raila Odinga was in Samburu meeting his party’s delegates.

Reports from across the country indicated that another six deaths had been recorded in Mombasa and Kisumu, bringing the toll to 14 in two days.

The grim situation continued as the strike over pay entered its second day, without any sign that normalcy would be restored any time soon.

On the one hand, the medics stood their ground insisting that they would push on with industrial action that has paralysed medical services in all public hospitals and other health facilities.

On the other hand, the authorities — both in national and county governments — gave no sign that they would budge on the 300 per cent pay increase demanded by the doctors and nurses.

While this grandstanding continued, helpless patients -in their thousands -some in excruciating pain had to look for alternatives, mainly in private and faith-based hospitals for those who could afford, while others returned to their houses to nurse their pain and anguish beside loved ones.

The ray of hope that had appeared to shine when the Kenya National Union of Nurses went into talks with the Government delegation led by Health CS Mailu and Principal Secretary Nicholas Muraguri on Monday evening dissipated yesterday, after the nurses vowed not to meet the two.

The meeting ended prematurely after the union officials walked out, the government’s sincerity in ending the stalemate.

Yesterday, the nurses union chairman, John Bii called for the sacking of Mailu and Muraguri, saying the union would not participate in talks spearheaded by two.

“Unless the Government puts in place a proper negotiating team, we shall not be part of any engagement that involves Muraguri and Mailu,” said Bii.

By evening yesterday, the doctors’ union officials were holed up in a meeting with the government officials and Council of Governors at Afya House, the Ministry of Health headquarters, as they sought a solution to the strike.

Earlier in the day, the doctors had stormed out of the meeting venue protesting against Government delays in sending its delegation for the talks. They had vowed not to return to the negotiating table, but changed heart later in the evening.

Mailu and Muraguri led the national government side, while the Council of Governors side was led by Kisii Governor James Ongwae. The doctors union said they had sent “arbitrators” to represent them.

The agony that patients are undergoing was exemplified by James Jomba, 41, a mouth cancer patient who had traveled to the Kenyatta National Hospital from Kirinyaga for further checks by his doctor, only to be turned away.

Still nursing excruciating pain from his swollen tongue that has made communication difficult, he was forced to go back home to nurse himself with painkillers bought over the counter.

“I was here by 9am. I have waited this long only to be told later that the main doctor was not around,” said, Jomba, who had travelled as per his doctor’s appointment following the conclusion of earlier radiotherapy sessions. Now, Jomba will have to wait until the strike ends.

His was just but one of the many cases of patients who had to return home, hoping that sooner the stalemate between the medics and the Government would be addressed.

Elsewhere, expectant mothers had to be rushed to alternative hospitals, and their families had to dig deep into their pockets to secure their safety and those of their newborns.

In Nyeri, the county government opted to provide beds and linen to its private hospitals to admit patients shifted from the Nyeri Provincial General Hospital.

In Nakuru, there were reports that the county government had received 5,000 applications for the various medical posts it had advertised.