Doctors demonstrate outside a Nairobi court on February 15, 2017 demanding pay rise. They have warned to start another strike if the national and county governments keep denying them their rights. [PHOTO/nation.co.ke]
Doctors are planning to go on strike in a dispute over alleged unpaid salaries.
Their union officials on Monday accused county governments of failing to fulfill their return-to-work formula which ended the 100-day strike that began on December 5 last year.
“We won’t work without pay. So if anyone wants to replay the 100 days of the doctors’ strike, we won’t hesitate to give them another 200,” said Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union boss Ouma Oluga.
He said the governors had met none of the promises agreed upon in the return-to-work deal despite President Uhuru Kenyatta ordering that they receive salaries for the days they were on strike.
“Doctors have not received a single cent of the allowances, which were added, or received four to five months’ pay and our timelines for being placed in the job groups have passed,” he said.
He said that despite their good will to return to work, a section of county and national government officials were still victimising the medics even as the Ministry of Labour advised against it.
“Doctors have been stretched thin and won’t continue working when they can’t afford basic needs,” he said in a statement.