Doctors’ union officials risk being sent to jail for a month for contempt of court, after the extension of their suspended sentence ended last night, with the team yet to abandon the strike as directed by the court.
The doctors instead plan to petition parliament to come to their aid, even as the strike stretches on to its 58th day.
Last week, Judge Hellen Wasilwa suspended their sentence to allow them call off the strike, something that they have not done.
“I will suspend the sentence that I issued, and I’m suspending it for five days,” said Wasilwa during her ruling.
The window of freedom offered by Wasilwa has now expired, and the leaders might be staring one month jail term.
Sources privy to the union’s officials say that they have vowed to petition parliament in a fresh attempt to have the controversial CBA implemented.
The source says the officials would want parliament to convene a special sitting to discuss their strike as well as their CBA.
This will offer another window of hope, following collapsed meetings between the officials and the government.
The officials wanted the Health CS Cleopa Mailu and the entire team to leave the negotiating table, calling for mediators to handle the strike that is fast becoming a crisis.
“For this process to be complete, we do not want to engage him again, as a matter of fact he must resign, he should just go, because we will not sit down and talk to people who are lying to the whole country,” Secretary General Olago had earlier said.
The strike began on December 5, with doctors saying the government had failed to honour a deal they signed in 2013, with the government declaring the agreement illegal and efforts to have the doctors sign a new deal proving hard to come by.