Are you surprised? Complaining through the 'right channels' didn't help doctors

What you need to know:

  • Kenyan professionals go on strike every so often, especially those in government service
  • The doctors signed agreements, complained through the "right" venues, followed due process and still, no money
  • In the meantime, the county government is asking nurses to apply for jobs the nurses on strike were doing

The death toll from the doctors' strike, as of Tuesday night’s news, was 20, though its not clear the strike caused them all.

According to the strike notice, the doctors were unhappy that the collective bargaining agreement signed with the government three years ago, in which their terms were to be significantly improved, has not been implemented.

Just last week, players from the Kenya rugby team were also on strike, also over matters of pay, and airport staff also refused to show up to work at Kenya Airways, saying that upper management had to be overhauled for the airline to crawl out of its financial quagmire.

Kenyan professionals go on strike every so often, especially those in government service. But Kenya is just not paying Kenyans, so what exactly do you expect them to do? Pay what you owe!

NINE MONTHS, NO PAY

When pay is poor or non-existent, of course people will have side jobs. Of course they will not be motivated and of course they will go on strike.

A friend of mine who is a nurse in Nakuru County has not been paid in nine months, and she has a child who is somehow supposed to survive.

In the meantime, the county government is asking nurses to apply for jobs the nurses on strike were doing.

How convenient. And the irony of it all is, after these interviews, the county says they are candidates sitting for said position and so cannot be paid!

And yes, she has the documents to prove it, from when they were asked to reapply for their jobs to when they said that applying for the jobs meant they would not receive a salary. How long does it take to tell someone they don’t have a job?

The government has been playing around with medical professionals in our country for too long. In fact, they have been playing us all.

We all see the billions of Kenyan shillings that go missing, but we are told there is no money to pay the people saving the very lives that steal this money. Possibly, this is because these thieves fly out for medical treatment anyway.

DIRE AND DRASTIC

The problem is, of course, that with a doctor’s strike, people just start dying. It's a Catch-22 situation if you don’t pay the doctors (and pharmacists, and nurses, et al), people die. But people shouldn’t have to die for other people to get paid.

I was having a conversation with another friend on Facebook. He said he agrees there is a problem, but took issue with the method used to solve it.

While I see his point, I am stumped as well what exactly are the medics supposed to do? They signed agreements, complained through the "right" venues, followed due process and still, no money. Or rather there is money, just not for them.

There is money for the Health Ministry to donate Sh3 million to be exact for the First Lady’s marathon, but not for the personnel who are supposed to manage the mobile clinics bought with the funds the marathons raise.

I asked him what the solution was, then. It is quite apparent that things don’t happen in this country unless something dire and drastic makes them.

I, too, wish it did not have to be this way, but I do not see another way out in a country where a little bit of Kenya cannot be given to the people building it, yet it is our country!

We are the ones these people are supposed to be serving!

I stand with the doctors. #LipaKamaTender.

Twitter: @AbigailArunga