Gov’t to striking doctors: Take offer on the table or else...

The doctors' strike entered its 42nd day on Wednesday, even as both the medics and Ministry of Health as well as the county governments maintained their stances.

Medical Services Principal Secretary Harry Kimtai has warned the striking health workers to accept the government's current offer or risk losing it all.

This as the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) reiterated that it is not backing down until its demand on interns’ pay is fully met.

"There is goodwill from government and the Council of Governors (CoG). It is up to the medics to accept what's being offered now before it's too late," said PS Kimtai when he appeared before the National Assembly Health Committee.

Responding to the government's stance on the strike during an interview on Citizen TV's breakfast show on Wednesday, KMPDU Secretary General Dr. Davji Atellah maintained that the 2017 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) gives doctors a legal mandate to claim what they are entitled to.

Dr. Atellah went on to rebuke MP Robert Pukose, the Chairperson of the National Assembly Health Committee, over comments about medical interns’ membership in the doctors’ union.

Pukose, who was also on the show, had defended the government’s stance in the hitherto unfruitful negotiations with striking medics who are protesting the government’s failure to post medical interns and obey the 2017 CBA on doctors’ labour terms.

“I am so shocked that Pukose is the chair of the health committee; it means the policies they are going to make are going to exploit these interns further," Dr. Atellah said.

"A negotiated CBA gives us a legal mandate. For someone to be a union member and be represented legally, [they have to pay] union subscriptions which are voluntary from the doctors."

So far, the government has presented a Ksh.70,000 offer for the medical interns in place of the Ksh.206,000 set in the CBA, which the doctors have turned down.