President Uhuru Kenyatta has asked health workers to end their strike and give room to ongoing talks to resolve their grievances.
Uhuru, who was accompanied by Deputy President William Ruto, announced that a solution will be found on the health workers salary issue but lamented the death of close to 20 patients.
“Let us be human and be mindful of the lives of the patients. I am confident that we will find a solution to the problem,” he said on Wednesday in Makueni.
He commissioned the Kenya Medical Training Centre (KMTC) Makindu campus and launched medical equipment at Makindu Sub-County Hospital.
Uhuru said governors and the Ministry of Health have been working round the clock for weeks, engaging the unions to resolve the matter and called on the health workers not to allow lives to be lost because of an issue that is being addressed.
Wednesday evening, doctors withdrew from talks with the government after the Labour Court ordered the arrest of KMPDU officials participating in the nationwide strike, since Monday.
The Ministry of Health said they had extended an offer to review doctors’ salaries, which would take effect from January 1, 2017, but the health workers turned it down.