Doctors Issue 5 Demands to Governors Hours After Ruto Praises

Nakuru doctors are on Tuesday expected to stage a strike if the county government fails to honour their demands.

Just like their counterparts from Nyamira, the Nakuru doctors, in a letter dated September 26, want Governor Susan Kihika to implement the Collective Bargaining Agreement covering the period between  2017-2021, as agreed between the two parties.

The medics attached to the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU) have articulated their demands, which include promoting their members, increasing the number of doctors, ensuring comprehensive medical coverage for staff, and creating a conducive working environment. 

Instructively, the development came shortly after President William Ruto commended the 47 governors for recording improved performance in the health sector.

Speaking during the the flagging off of Community Health Promoters at Uhuru Park in Nairobi on Monday, the Head of State noted that service delivery from county governments was better than when the function was still under the National Government.

Nonetheless, KMPDU members noted that they are preparing to hit the streets on Tuesday, September 26.

“The CBA implementation Committee is uncommitted despite our regular requests for meetings which is both disappointing and in violation of established protocols,” read the demand in part.

“We demand for the quarterly committee meeting or when need arises as per the harmonised implementation matrix of the doctors CBA issued by the Council of Governors.”

In the letter, the medical practitioners also lamented that careers of specialist doctors had stagnated while hospitals experienced a severe shortage of doctors.

They also argued that the absence of the necessary facilities, equipment and support staff created an unfavorable work environment for the doctors.

“The kind of ambiguous contractual employment that the County is engaging doctors with a salary of Ksh100,000 without gratuity are illegal and against the CBA agreement,” demanded the doctors.

In Nyamira, doctors lamented that the CBA agreement was yet to be honoured and that public hospitals were understaffed.

Ruto, on Monday, however, flagged off 100,000 Community Health Promoters tasked with collecting data from households to scan for disease patterns and better equip hospitals with proper medical equipment.

The promoters will be assigned 100 households each.

“We are also starting the journey to register every household in Kenya so that we can have the information on the health requirements, health conditions, prevalence on whatever diseases in every part of Kenya so that our health delivery will not be based on guess work but on information collected by the promoters,” The Head of State noted.