Cabinet issues return-to-work order

Suleiman Mbatiah | Nation
Members of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union South Rift branch stage a demonstration in Nakuru on September 13, 2012.

What you need to know:

  • Ministers ask teachers, lecturers and medical staff to obey court directives that declared their strikes illegal

The Cabinet on Thursday took a hardline position on the ongoing strikes by teachers, university lecturers and medical practitioners in a move likely to scuttle any negotiations to resolve the crises.

A Cabinet meeting chaired by President Kibaki faulted the striking workers for failing to enter into negotiations with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, which has the constitutional mandate to review the pay for public servants.

The ministers asked the staff to obey court orders that declared the strikes illegal and go back to work.

This was the first time the Cabinet met to discuss the ongoing strikes by teachers and lecturers, which have paralysed the education sector.

The meeting coincided with the commencement of a countrywide strike called by the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentist Union (KMPPDU) to demand better terms for its members.

A statement from the Presidential Press Service said the Cabinet had set up a committee comprising the ministers for Labour, Education, Higher Education, Medical Services, and Finance, and the Attorney-General to review the demands by the striking workers in light of their economic and legal implications.

The team, to be chaired by Public Service minister Dalmas Otieno, will meet on Friday.

Thursday’s meeting, however, did not give a time-frame within which the committee would complete its task.

“Cabinet noted that there exists a stipulated constitutional and legal framework that has been supplemented with clear guidelines by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission that is mandated under the new Constitution to deal with the Public Sector Wage Bill,” says the statement.

The two principals, President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, and the ministers argued that the constitutional guidelines required that all aggrieved public servants open collective bargaining negotiations with the commission within the government budget cycle.

“Cabinet noted that it was not fair that pupils in public schools were not learning while those in private schools were learning yet they will face the same syllabus and examinations.

“Cabinet also decried the suffering of patients who were not adequately catered for in public hospitals,” the statement reads.

The medical practitioners went ahead with their strike despite a court order stopping it.

Industrial Court judge Stephen Radido gave orders prohibiting KMPPDU from commencing or continuing with the strike until an application filed by the AG on behalf of the Ministry of Medical Services and Ministry of Public Health challenging the doctors’ strike was heard and determined.

Through lawyer Kiage Oenga, the AG moved to court under certificate of urgency, saying that the strike called by KMPPDU was illegal because it violated provisions in the Labour Relations Act.

KMPPDU has raised several issues relating to a return to work agreement entered into with the government in December last year.

They said that some of its provisions had not been met by the government, hence the strike.