Doctors’ Strike Week 3: No Cure Yet

The ailing health sector is Kenya is not yet out of the Intensive Care Unit with hope of getting a lasting cure for the problem dwindling with each passing day.

The striking doctors who have vowed that they will not return to work unless the 2013 Collective Bargaining Agreement, CBA, is implemented in full.

The matter is set to become worse when doctors and consultants in private health facilities joined the striking doctors on Wednesday midnight.

Almost all talks organized by the Ministry of Labor as well as that of health have ended in collapse with each side trading accusations of the other not being willing to provide a solution.

The medics want the government to implement the CBA that was agreed upon in the year 2013 where doctors were to receive up to 300 percent increment in their salaries. This meant that if implemented, the lowest doctor was to receive 342,000 shillings while the highest paid taking home 940,000 shillings.

The Council of Governors ran to court asking the court to intervene. The Labor Court intervened and ordered doctors to get back to work terming the strike illegal and unlawful. This angered the medics who vowed to move on with their strike. The same court, when its order failed to take effect, issued warrants of arrests to union officials leading to the officials withdrawing from the ongoing talks. This week, the court also said that the officials are guilty of the contempt of court and that they risk a six-month jail term or a hefty fine determined by the court.

The nurses called off their strike after their union reached an agreement with the government. Most of the nurses are back to work back they cannot do anything in absence of doctors. Some nurses who were not happy with the return-work-formula reached by their officials are yet to return to work and the situation in the public health sector has gotten pathetic.

As the doctors’ strike enters week three, people seem to be slowly forgetting about it as things become as though they are ‘normal’. The media has started giving less attention to the issue and Kenyans seem not to be bothered by the ongoing events apart from those ailing. For instance, how many people have died so far as a result of the ongoing strike? How many patients are back to their homes, suffering in silent because they cannot afford the services of private hospitals?

President Uhuru Kenyatta has continued being mute about the issue which is affecting thousands of Kenyans only casually mentioning it at political rallies. During the 53rd Jamhuri Day celebrations, the Head of State disappointed most Kenyans when he failed to address not even mentioning the then ongoing nationwide doctor’s strike.

The National Assembly on the other hand has been recalled for special sittings (Twice this month) with the irony being that they are not meeting to discuss the plight of the sick or the striking doctors but the amendment of the Electoral Law (Amendment) Act of 2016 which was signed intp law by the Head of State.

Related: Pain, Tears and Death In Public Hospitals As Doctors’ Strike Bites On