Striking Kenyan doctors defy government, will not resume work.

Record ID: 401476

  • Title: Striking Kenyan doctors defy government, will not resume work.
  • Date: 9th March 2017
  • Summary: NAIROBI, KENYA (MARCH 9, 2017) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) KENYA MEDICAL ASSOCIATION NATIONAL CHAIRPERSON, JACQUELINE KITULU, SAYING: "In terms of our human resources for health and we are looking at doctor patient ratios, we are at two doctors for every 10,000 patients. We have a severe shortage in the current state even if everyone was working. So firing all those do
  • Embargoed: 23rd March 2017 15:22
  • Keywords: Doctors Medics Health Strike Negotiations KMPDU. Government President Patients
  • Location: NAIROBI AND NAIVASHA, KENYA
  • City: NAIROBI AND NAIVASHA, KENYA
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Fundamental Rights/Civil Liberties,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA005678MO9J
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Kenya's state sector doctors, who have been on strike for three months, said on Wednesday (March 8) they would not resume work after a government order the day before and would wait for the conclusion of court-supervised resolution of the dispute.
    The government on Tuesday (March 7) said it had withdrawn an offer of a 50 percent pay hike after the workers' union became inflexible in their negotiations and that doctors were expected to resume work with immediate effect.
    The strike, which began in December, has provoked anger among Kenyans and put pressure on President Uhuru Kenyatta's government ahead an election in August.
    "You must remember that we still remain a developing country with a long way to go. We are not be able to achieve what you want overnight. Right now it seems to me that the doctors should pay attention to the national circumstance and it seems to me that they should remember the higher duty to protect life. It seems to me that it would be wise for them to be guided by patience and practicality," Kenyatta said at an out of town retreat for governors.
    The doctors downed their tools in December demanding authorities implement a deal agreed in 2013 to give them a 150 to 180 percent pay rise.
    The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU), which has about 5,000 members, also wants the government to review working conditions, job structures and criteria for promotions and address under-staffing in state hospitals.
    The Kenya Medical Association (KMA) chair, Jacqueline Kitulu, said the negotiations had failed because of differences over a return-to-work strategy.
    "The truth of the matter is that all that was agreed on and there is no negotiation about money. That was fully agreed and it is an issue that is done and dusted. But as in all strikes there is a protocol to how a strike is ended and the return to work formula is that document. So that document needs to be.. again it is an agreed on document by the both sides because both sides signed it and our appeal therefore to both sides was that we are now at a penultimate stage. It has been a long road very many people have suffered the public has suffered a long this path. They have been patient but they have suffered in this time and it is a high time that we went back to a situation of normalcy in our health sector," said Kitulu.
    Local media reported that authorities had already began firing striking doctors as the ultimatum to return to work expired and said they would hire foreign doctors to take their place.
    "In terms of our human resources for health and we are looking at doctor patient ratios, we are at two doctors for every 10,000 patients. We have a severe shortage in the current state even if everyone was working. So firing all those doctors, I do not think solves the problem. It escalates an already bad situation, moves it from bad to worse, from worse to worst and this is what we are appealing to both sides therefore, for sobriety. Step back, reassess, how do we end this? In a way that... because even firing all of them just means that we prolong the suffering of the public," said Kitulu.
    A series of corruption scandals, including an investigation into millions of dollars allegedly missing from the Health Ministry, has bolstered support for the doctors, even as Kenyan media have reported that patients have died during the strike.
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