Medics threaten to down tools over lecturers' pay row

Egerton University, Nakuru County, staff continue with their strike on March 20, 2018. PHOTO | SILA KIPLAGAT | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Dr Oluga said the State had failed to fulfil promises made in the return-to-work agreement.
  • The medics said they would boycott work if the dons’ strike, which began on March 1, persists.

Doctors have threatened to withdraw services from two referral hospitals owing to the government’s failure to resolve a pay standoff with lecturers in medical schools.

Under the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU), the medics said they would boycott work if the dons’ strike, which began on March 1, persists.

The two are Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in Eldoret.

“We are thinking of doing a total shutdown at KNH and MTRH if this issue is not addressed because our doctors are fatigued due to the workload,” KMPDU secretary-general Ouma Oluga said.

LECTURERS' STRIKE
Addressing journalists at St Luke’s Hospital in Eldoret, where he led KMPDU officials in meeting medical lecturers from Moi University, Dr Oluga said the State had failed to fulfil promises made in the return-to-work agreement.

“We want the government to know that doctors are tired and if it does not act in time, then we shall paralyse everything.

"Since last year, the dons have not been paid allowances we agreed upon and now the strike is almost entering its fourth week,” he said.

He was accompanied by union officials Dr Daisy Korir and Dr Richard Mogeni.

The meeting brought together 122 lecturers and 300 registrars from Moi University.

LEARNING
Dr Oluga indicated that the strike had paralysed operations in six key public universities.

“Nothing is going on at the University of Nairobi, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Moi, Maseno, Egerton and Kenyatta universities. We are saying that the dons need to be paid their clinical allowances in full,” he said.

Dr Oluga added: “We want the strike to be sorted out soon so that normalcy can return to medical schools.

"There are students who have delayed to sit for their examinations yet they should be out their rendering services to Kenyans.”