Doctors' officials to know fate on jail term today

What you need to know:

  • Justice Hellen Wasilwa is today expected to announce whether she will consider reviewing the jail sentence she imposed on eight KMPDU officials last month or send them to prison.

Doctors' union officials are pegging their hopes on the Employment and Labour Relations Court regarding the jail sentence they are facing, after the Court of Appeal declined to suspend it.

Justice Hellen Wasilwa is today expected to announce whether she will consider reviewing the jail sentence she imposed on eight Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union officials last month or send them to prison.

The officials were found guilty of disobeying court orders stopping the strike when they urged union members to boycott work and participate in a nationwide strike that enters its 61th day today.

The officials, through their lawyer Edgar Washika and Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo, had requested the judge to consider reviewing the jail sentence so as to allow room for negotiations.

But the Council of Governors, the health Cabinet secretary and the Attorney-General urged her to punish them for being in contempt of court during the last hearing.

COUNTRYWIDE DEMONSTRATIONS

The legal battle involving doctors started late last year, when they issued a 30-day strike notice to the government demanding higher pay and implementation of a 2013 collective bargaining agreement.

All doctors and nurses, including those in the private sector, were urged to participate in the strike.

But county bosses rushed to court to stop the strike, claiming that essential health services would be disrupted if the strike was allowed to proceed as threatened.

And their pleas yielded results, with the same court agreeing to issue temporary orders to stop the planned job boycott on December 1, 2016.

But this did not change the minds of the doctors and nurses, who failed to show up at their workplaces at health facilities and held demonstrations countrywide calling for better pay.

The nurses, through their union, Knun, agreed with county bosses to call off their strike and their collective bargaining agreement will be implemented as from end of this month.

FRUITLESS NEGOTIATIONS

However, doctors have soldiered on and little has been achieved from ongoing negotiations aimed at resolving the standoff.

On Tuesday, they asked the court to consider recommending a mediation team to lead the talks, saying their officials had not been successful in persuading their members to call off the strike.

The jail sentence has been suspended three times on the condition that the strike be called off and talks be held between the parties involved.

Doctors have accused governors of failing to participate in the talks but have recognised they have met with the health ministry.

They have also complained that the government has been shifting its positions in the talks and even refused to give them the increase in allowances that President Uhuru Kenyatta had offered.