Africa-Press – Kenya. The Council of Governors (COG) is today scheduled to meet to deliberate on the ongoing nationwide doctors’ strike which has continued to affect services in various health facilities across the country.
The county bosses called for the extraordinary meeting after the medical workers defied orders to return to work.
The nationwide strike entered its 13th day on Tuesday with the doctors, medical interns and medical students demanding that their concerns be addressed.
COG chairperson Anne Waiguru will later address the press on key resolutions from the meeting.
On Friday last week, doctors in Nairobi protested the posting of medical interns as they demanded that Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha heed their demands.
They cited the 2017 CBA while blaming the CS for going against the agreements made.
“Seven years later, the signed CBA is being disowned. The same CBA is a court order. The government has not yet implemented the basic salary in the CBA,” Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union Secretary General Davji Atellah claimed outlining the union’s demands.
“The comprehensive medical cover has been disowned, medical interns have not been posted, postgraduate training has also been disowned and doctors are not being employed.”
Atellah claimed the union has in the past held meetings with the government but the commitments arrived at to resolve the stalemate had never been implemented.
He said that the doctors will stay on strike for as long as it takes.
Patients seeking services in various public hospitals continue to bear the brunt of the strike.
The strike persisted Tuesday, with doctors in Nakuru staging a peaceful street demonstration in the streets.
The medics who were joined by other public health workers, medical interns and medicine students from Egerton University waved placards, whistled and chanted slogans against the Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha.
They walked close to four kilometers from Nakuru Teaching and Referral Hospital, through Kenyatta Avenue and terminated at Nakuru County government headquarters where they sought audience with Governor Susan Kihika.
The protestors were addressed by Nakuru County Executive Committee Member for Health, Roselyn Mungai who received their petition and assured them cooperation.
KMPDU South Rift Branch Secretary Stephen Omondi said the protest was meant to push the government into appreciating the effect of the strike that is now on day 13.
“The public continue to suffer every day that medics are on strike yet instead of the government implementing the CBA, it is politicizing the issue,” he said.
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