Over 600 doctors to meet in Nairobi over planned strike

Over 600 doctors from different parts of the country will convene at the Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi on Saturday, November 30, for a Special Delegates Conference (SDC) to deliberate on the upcoming national strike following unfulfilled promises by the government.

In a notice issued by the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) Secretary General Davji Atellah, the doctors shall decide whether to down their tools for either 14 days or a maximum of 21 days in protests of the conditions that medical officers are facing due to delays in salary payments.

Following the intern’s death, the KMPDU SG demanded the government to fulfill its promises, failure to which he would issue a strike notice before the end of the year.

Further, he acknowledged that the State had failed to honour the return-to-work formula at the end of a 56-day strike earlier in the year.

“We are going to give notice for a nationwide strike for all the doctors. We have the Special Delegates Conference (SDC) which then will determine whether we are going for seven or 14 days but at most 21 days,” he said.

The doctors’ grievances emanated from a directive from the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) that proposed a reduction of the interns’ stipends from Sh206,000 to around Sh70,000.

KMPDU, however, opposed the proposal, citing that it would downgrade the interns’ critical role in the healthcare service.

This led to a 56-day strike that rocked the country’s health sector in mid-May 2024.

The doctors, however, returned to work after signing a deal that would prompt the government to pay salary arrears amounting to Sh3.5 billion over the next five years and improve the doctors’ working conditions.

Meanwhile, the Kenya Union of Clinical Officers (KUCO) has threatened to down their tolls beginning December 23, 2024 over what they term as discrimination in the rollout of the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF), now rebranded to Taifa Care.

Speaking after their Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Naivasha, KUCO officials accused the Social Health Authority (SHA) of locking their members from offering services under the new health model.

Their strike threat comes a day after the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) called on all intern doctors to withdraw their services over job frustrations, further threatening a mega demonstration in December.

According to KUCO National Chairperson Peterson Wachira, top officials from the authority are to blame for the current crisis that has affected over 6 million Kenyans. Wachira noted that the new SHA board had blocked clinicians from the list of service providers yet they operate over 1,000 private facilities in the country.

The KUCO boss, addressing the press in Naivasha, noted that the crisis started once the SHIF came into force.
Flanked by other union officials, he warned that the health sector could collapse due to poor management by senior officers from SHA who had introduced a new funding model.

For instance, Antony Kariga, an eye-surgeon from Nakuru, said that over 80 per cent of patients in need of eye-operations could not get the services.

He said SHA has blocked them from offering these services and this has seen tens of operations put on hold.

James Nderitu, an anesthetist, said they could no longer seek pre-authorization before conducting their services as was the case before.

A dermatologist, Austin Odour, termed the move by SHA to remove clinical officers from the list of service providers as questionable and inhuman.