Doctors in the country have threatened to down their tools in the next 30 days if the government fails to honour their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
In a statement on Monday, December 19, Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU) Secretary General Dr Davji Atellah said the doctors signed a CBA with County and National governments in 2017, which is yet to be implemented.
Atella said the government has not promoted doctors, employed new medics, nor supplied medical equipment needed by doctors as agreed in the CBA.
“We see extreme shortage of doctors, there are no specialists. We have over 5000 doctors who have not been employed,” he said.
“Doctors continue to be trained by more than 9 universities in Kenya yet they remain unemployed and exploited to the detriment of quality of healthcare practice. Counties have extreme shortage, some even with 1 consultant serving the whole county,” he added.
“It is immoral to see our people suffer in hospitals, having to queue for long, unable to get proper care yet we have trained doctors who would otherwise save their lives.”
The KMPDU boss said the medics will down their tools in January if their concerns are not addressed immediately.
“We have written letters trying to have actions from National and County governments. By the time we have given notice of intend of industrial action, we have exhausted all the available avenues. An agreement that has been signed by the state has to be honoured,” he added.
