Doctors meet on Friday to decide on Uhuru's 40 per cent pay rise offer

Kenya Medical Practitioners Dentists and Pharmacists Union Secretary General Dr. Ouma Oluga (centre) with National Chairman Dr Samuel Oroko (right) and other officials address the media over the ongoing strike on December 31 2016. Doctors will on Friday decide whether to take President Kenyatta's 40 per cent pay rise or to continue with their strike. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The union will first meet 45 members of its National Advisory Council in their office in Nairobi at 8am and at 10am, the negotiation’s team will meet government officials at the Treasury said Dr Allan Makokha, a member of the council.
  • A source within the union said there was a stalemate due to the government’s failure to implement the CBA and instead offering the 40 per cent pay rise.

Doctors will on Friday decide whether to accept President Kenyatta’s 40 per cent pay rise offer or continue with their strike until a Collective Bargaining Agreement between them and the government is implemented.

Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) secretary-general Ouma Oluga said Kenyans will know of their decision on Friday.

“The verdict will be known today (Friday) after the meetings,” said Dr Oluga on Thursday, who spoke on phone without disclosing much details.

The union will first meet 45 members of its National Advisory Council in their office in Nairobi at 8am and at 10am, the negotiation’s team will meet government officials at the Treasury said Dr Allan Makokha, a member of the council.

Dr Makokha said he was not aware if representatives from the Council of Governors, a body that employs more than 80 per cent of the health workers, will be in the meeting after they failed to show up at a forum that was held at State House, Mombasa, on Wednesday.

“I am currently at the airport taking a flight to Nairobi for the meeting. All officials from various counties have been called to attend the urgent meeting, however our bare minimum is and has been, implementation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement,” he said.

MAINTAINED HARD STANCE

A source within the union said there was a stalemate due to the government’s failure to implement the CBA and instead offering the 40 per cent pay rise, adding that they have maintained their hard stance.

It comes after patients continue to suffer due to lack of medical services at public hospitals in the country after the strike entered another month. Dr Oluga said the President is concerned and wants to end the strike.

President Kenyatta initiated the dialogue that took six hours, with the government offering a monthly salary of Sh196,989 for the least-paid doctor, up from the current Sh140,244.

Friday’s meeting comes as KMPDU officials in Nyanza vowed not call off the month-long strike and dismissed the 40 per cent pay rise.
The officials termed the government’s new deal as a “betrayal of trust and a travesty of justice.”

Dr Lameck Omweri (secretary general, Nyanza), and Dr Peter Morebu (chairman, Kisii County) urged their members to remain at home until the government meets fully the CBA signed in 2013.

Meanwhile, nurses working in many of the hospitals in the region continued to be overwhelmed. Clinical officers and the nurses attended to the few patients who showed up as wards remained empty.

Additional reporting by Magati Obebo