KEMRI Researchers Threaten To Go On Strike Over Unpaid Allowances

The Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) is likely to face a setback in conducting Covid-19 tests as most of its employees are on a go-slow over unpaid allowances and poor working conditions.

KEMRI which is at the forefront in conducting tests on Covid-19 samples is already recording low tests following the go-slow by the employees that have been ongoing for the past one month.

A source at the institute who spoke to a local daily says most employees are protesting about discrimination where medical doctors among the staff are being given allowances while the non-medical doctors are being left out.

The medical doctors and clinical officers at the facility are being given allowances on their health risk, extraneous and call while the non-medical staff who include entomologists, immunologists, and parasitologists are left out yet they do the bulk of the work.

The KEMRI employees have now threatened to strike if the management does not take heed to their demands.

“It beats logic that clinical doctors who are not even part of this arrangement are paid allowances, yet those doing the testing are not paid. What language do they want us to speak so that they listen to us? If is it a strike that will make them understand, then we will go on a go-slow,” said the source who spoke to a local daily.

The Insider protested that in as much as they spend their money on various activities including phone calls, the allowances are given to those who do very little work at the facility.

“The only way we can compare notes with our colleagues is through phone calls when we resume work as they leave. We spend our own money to make phone calls. We do not receive phone allowances, yet our colleagues are paid despite not doing much,” he lamented.

The source revealed that some of the doctors receiving allowances have clinics outside the facility which they spend most of their time.

“These are people who have side clinics and only give the institute half of their time while those who are dedicated to the organization are sidelined and discriminated against. We are the ones in the front line now and we are demanding that we are also given the allowances or we will not work,” he said.

“We deserve better treatment and a good working environment. How can a medical doctor right from the university earn more than a Ph.D. scientist who is now working tirelessly to ensure that the target of Covid-19 tests is met every day?”

Up to 6000 tests have been conducted at KEMRI since the first case was reported in Kenya but the number is likely to reduce if the institution continues to face the ongoing challenges.