[Opposition leader Raila Odinga (with mic) alongside striking doctors at Uhuru Park, February 15, 2017]
Opposition leader Raila Odinga stood in solidarity with the striking doctors, who are agitating for a 300 per cent salary increment.
Raila was in Court with the doctor's lawyers, for an appeal case, to free seven Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU) officials, that had been jailed for contempt of Court, after they declined to end the strike.
They were jailed for a one month jail term, by Labour court Justice Hellen Wasilwa, February 13.
However, the Appellate Court released the two days later, Wednesday, with Raila calling them 'Prison Graduates (PG)'. According to him, they earned the tittle after fighting for doctors' rights.
"The government signed a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the doctors but instead of fulfilling it, they are jailing them. This is unconstitutional. The government must implement the CBA,'' Raila told striking doctors who gathered at Uhuru Park, Nairobi, in solidarity with their 'jailed' bosses.
"Now the jailed doctors have earned themselves a new degree. They have come out with a 'PG', Prison Graduates,'' he said, amid cheers.
He further asked both doctors and government to seat down and negotiate, to find solutions.
Also present at Uhuru Park, were his Opposition partners, Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetangula.