Doctors to sue IG Koome over comments on medics protests
The
Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU) on Monday said they had moved
to court to sue the Inspector General of Police, Japhet Koome, over his Sunday comments
that protests by doctors and clinical officers are an inconvenience to the
public.
Medics
downed their tools on March 14 and have been protesting the government’s failure to post medical interns and obey a 2017 Collective
Bargaining Agreement (CBA) on doctors’ labour terms.
Koome
issued a statement saying the protests have obstructed traffic flow on roads and even claimed that doctors have been taking to the streets without notifying police
officers in advance as required by the law.
KMPDU
Secretary General Davji Atellah however dismissed the police boss’ comments as
falsehoods meant to intimidate the doctors’ union to stop demonstrating.
“We’ve
already proceeded to court against the defamatory action and statement issued yesterday.
We will serve the IG regarding that,” Dr Atellah told a press conference in
Nairobi.
And as
efforts by the government, through the Ministry of Health and Head of Public
Service Felix Koskei, to negotiate a return-to-work formula with medics remain
unfruitful, the doctors accused the government of being the ones on strike and
frustrating the discussions.
Atellah
on Monday said they would return to the streets on Tuesday demos to go on and
maintained that they had notified police about it.
“No
amount of threats, intimidation or victimisation that will make us suspend this
strike. We will have to sit and have a return-to-work agreement that spells out
protection for the CBA that was signed,” the KMPDU secretary-general said.
The Law
Society of Kenya (LSK), Katiba Institute, the Kenya Human Rights Commission
(KHRC) and other CSOs are among other bodies which condemned IG Koome’s
Sunday comments, in which he also told police across the country to quell the demos.
The
bodies said doctors were practising their right to picket and told the police
boss to apologise by 6 pm Sunday, failure to which they would sue him.
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