CS Duale blames union leaders over strikes, says majority of demonstrators not health workers

Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale has accused some union leaders of orchestrating protests using non-health workers, claiming that recent demonstrations outside Afya House were driven by individuals “turning a noble workforce into their own games.”

In an interview on Citizen TV’s The Explainer show on Tuesday, Duale dismissed the legitimacy of recent demonstrations linked to health sector disputes.

According to the CS, the union-led protests were not genuine since some unnamed people had been infiltrating them with the aim of sabotaging the healthcare system in Kenya through protests.

“One thing I have seen at Afya House is that a majority of the people who come to demonstrate nowadays are not healthcare workers. Some leaders are turning a very noble healthcare workforce, which we want to equip and make fit for purpose, into a tool for their own games,” he said.

“Not only the ones of today, even some of the previous ones. Some are not genuine, and I can say that without any fear of contradiction. Since I came in, healthcare workers will confirm — ask the doctors’ union, ask the UHC staff, ask the other leadership — the whole sector has now stabilised."

He added, “But there are people who want to earn their living by using the healthcare workers in our country, who are doing amazing work. Without healthcare workers, UHC, Taifa Care, and the Universal Health Care Act will not be achieved. But they should not use healthcare workers as a bogey.”

Duale went on to defend his record since taking office, saying he had addressed long-standing industrial disputes, which occasionally pitted the government against health workers.

“I am one of the CSs for Health who, when I came to office, resolved the long-standing historical health care industrial dispute in our country. I have posted interns at the rate that they wanted in consultation with the National Treasury and the presidency. I have made sure that the UHC staff, including clinicians, are now earning at the SRC rate,” he said.

The CS was responding to fresh concerns raised by the Kenya Union of Clinical Officers (KUCO), which on Tuesday threatened to begin a nationwide strike on December 23 after the lapse of their 21-day notice to the Ministry of Health.

The union held peaceful demonstrations from Green Park Terminus to Afya House, accusing Duale of failing to sign their return-to-work agreement, which they say would operationalise their absorption into permanent and pensionable terms.

According to KUCO Secretary General Peterson Wachira, the government has not implemented key commitments in the 2024 return-to-work agreement, including promotions, redesignations, improved pay and the conversion of clinical officers to permanent and pensionable terms.