[Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU) officials in court during a past hearing. Photo/Courtesy]
President Uhuru Kenyatta has asked the striking doctors to return to work.
He said Kenyans have suffered due to the ongoing strike that kicked off December 5, 2016, and urged doctors to consider the matter by putting aside their interests.
Uhuru cited the installation of the modern health equipment in all the counties as an indication that working conditions for doctors were improving.
“In our hospitals, we have been able to install X-ray machines, Dialysis machines and even others in the short time we have been in power,” said the president, Saturday.
Speaking in Kiambu County, he noted: “It is in this regard that I want to appeal to doctors to return to work so that the suffering of Kenyans can stop.''
Despite this, doctors have vowed to continue downing tools until a 2013 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) they signed with the Ministry of Health, is fully implemented.
The government however maintained it was willing to negotiate a new CBA insisting that the 2013 one could not be executed since it was not registered.