Eight officials of the doctors' union risk going to jail this Friday for allegedly disobeying court orders given to stop a two-month medics' strike and leading their members to boycott work.
Judge Hellen Wasilwa of the Employment and Labour Relations Court on Tuesday said she would give her ruling this Friday as she extended suspension of the sentence by another 72 hours.
Through their lawyer Edgar Washika, the union bringing together Kenya Medical Practitioners’, Pharmacists’ and Dentists’ Union claimed that it had tried to comply with the court directions immediately after their sentence was put pending by five days.
“A further suspension of your sentence will bring results but if you rule on the contrary, it will result in further loss of time for parties to resolve this issue as well as an unfortunate loss of goodwill,” said Mr Washika.
According to the lawyer, the union had convened a number of meetings and lobbied to end the strike but their members voted to not call it off if issues regarding their contentious CBA were not expressed in a clear way.
The union also accused the Council of Governors (CoG) of refusing to participate in the negotiations and requested that the court considers appointing a mediator to spearhead the talks in a structured manner with specific timelines.
“Governors are the ones who brought this matter to court and are pushing for the sentence on contempt, yet they have not participated in any way in the meetings,” said lawyer Mutula Kilonzo Jr, who is also the Makueni senator.