Doctors: Government not interested in ending strike

Striking doctors outside Parliament Buildings yesterday where they had gone to petition MPs to help them end the two-month strike. [Photo: BEVERLYNE MUSILI/Standard]

Doctors have accused the Government of taking advantage of their impending jail sentences to frustrate talks to end the strike.

Through a team of lawyers led by Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jnr, the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) said they had tried their best to engage Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu, but he had shown no goodwill.

“I have engaged both parties but there is nothing to show from the Government. It is not fair when doctors are in the streets and their colleagues are on the verge of being jailed while the Cabinet secretary is sitting pretty easy in his office waiting for them to be jailed,” said Mr Kilonzo.

The doctors’ union officials were to be jailed for a month after the five days Industrial Court judge Hellen Wasilwa granted them to finalise talks with the Government elapsed.

Kilonzo submitted that it will be wrong for the judge to single out the union officials for punishment when her orders directed that both parties engage in talks.

He further argued that both the Health CS and his Labour counterpart Phylis Kandie should have been summoned to appear before court to explain how they have engaged the doctors to end the dispute.

“The Council of Governors has not even bothered to call for a meeting despite being the ones who went to court. It would only be fair if you summon all the other parties to also file what they have done,” said Kilonzo.

Lawyer Washika Ochima added that the union officials have done everything they could including petitioning the National Assembly to help end the dispute.

The judge said she will rule on February 3 whether to give them more time for talks or sentence them.

CONTENTIOUS ISSUES

It also emerged yesterday that the doctors have identified three contentious issues that are delaying the calling off of the strike.

The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that has been disputed by the courts has three contentious issues that the negotiating parties have to wade through to deliver a solution; salary, training and whether doctors should have their own grading system separate from the civil service’s.

As much as the doctors have agreed with the proposed entry point at Job group M, their next battle ground has shifted to the newly proposed salary bands by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).

While SRC have proposed that the doctors be in band C and D, which if agreed and implemented might be a solution to the impasse, as the medics want to be placed at band D and E, which have higher salaries.

The option of having doctors in their own job grading scale is a welcome idea among all parties; the devil is, however, in the details of this idea. The doctors are yet to agree on whether to have a separate grading system from civil servants.

The issue of training entails doctors pursuing their postgraduate studies to specialise in a specific field of medicine, dentistry and pharmacy and they manage patients without any additional pay.

The practice worldwide is to compensate the specialists for the services they offer. This was part of an agreement in previous strikes to address this matter.

The Government has, however, maintained that training is not its function but that of the training institutions.

Determined to end the strike, the doctors have sought the help of the MPs. The union’s Secretary General Ouma Oluga yesterday petitioned the National Assembly to resolve the stalemate with the Ministry of Health and the Council of Governors.

Dr Oluga asked the MPs to compel both levels of government to negotiate with the union with a view of ending the strike that has been ongoing for over two months now.

“We petition the National Assembly to add its voice in calling for the Government to negotiate with utmost good faith, with the aim of ending the current stalemate so as to alleviate the suffering being visited upon the citizens,” reads the petition in part.