No end in sight as doctors, ministers exchange barbs

KMPDU Secretary-General Ouma Oluga and Chairman Samuel Oroko. They have urged the government to meet them halfway to call off the strike. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu and his Treasury counterpart Henry Rotich announced that they will be exploring alternative measures to deal with the crisis in the healthcare system.
  • Government spokesman Mr Eric Kiraithe said the 300 percent increment sought by doctors will greatly affect the government wage bill management structure.

The Secretary General of the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentist Union Ouma Oluga has criticised the government’s handling of the strike, which has entered its second month.

Speaking a day after Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu and his Treasury counterpart Henry Rotich announced that they will be exploring alternative measures to deal with the crisis in the healthcare system, Dr Oluga said the country was at “an unfortunate point”.

He, however, said that medical staff in public institutions have suffered for a long time, revealing that 2,200 doctors resigned between 2013-2016 to seek better options.

On Friday, doctors rejected a 40 per cent pay rise offered by President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday and vowed not to go back to work.

But Government spokesman Mr Eric Kiraithe, all but shut any avenues for further engagement with doctors.

He said the 300 percent increment sought by doctors will greatly affect the government wage bill management structure.

“The president’s offer was final.  A further increase will affect the wage bill and also give other cadres of workers ideas to stage similar strikes. It is a Pandora’s box the government will not open. Let doctors stay advised,” he said.

He said high end careers like architects will likely demand similar wages and this will greatly affect investment by channeling funds to recurrent expenditure.

DEMANDING 300 PER CENT INCREMENT

“A teacher who has toiled for 30 years is earning what doctors are asking for their interns. That simply cannot happen,” he said.
Dr Ouma sought to clarify the misunderstanding over the exact percentage of funds doctors’ are asking for.

“Doctors are not demanding a 300 per cent pay increment. According to page 25, appendix A of the CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement), what we are presenting is a consensus pay proposal. Depending on each individual doctor’s job group, the increment is anything between 79 per cent to 200 per cent of the basic salary. This way, entry level doctors whose current basic pay is Sh35, 000 will get Sh107, 000.

Doctors at the higher job groups will get increments that are bit lower, towards the 79 per cent end,” he said.

The union says the government did not enter the negotiations in good faith. Dr Oluga has accused the government of misrepresenting facts on the CBA.

The announcement by CS Mailu on Friday that the government might consider hiring foreign doctors is one that the union has scoffed at.

“This is a public health issue. This is not a doctors’ issue.  We have an industrial issue, our concerns are healthcare service provision concerns and that is accounted for in the constitution. We are not at war with the government,” he said.

Insisting that the strike will proceed as they had on Friday announced he asserted, “The implementation of the CBA is all we need. We have presented seven alternative implementation proposals with timelines that extend till 2018.”