We'll not pay you, Munya tells doctors

Council of Governors chairman Peter Munya. (Photo: Beverlyne Musili/Standard)

Governors have dismissed demands by doctors to be paid Sh3.2 billion in accumulated salaries while they were on strike.

The county chiefs stressed that there was nowhere in the return-to-work deal signed this month that they committed to paying the doctors for the three months they were on strike.

In a statement read by Council of Governors (CoG) chairman Peter Munya (Meru governor), the county bosses expressed their reservations at an attempt by the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentist Union (KMPDU) to renege on the deal signed by the national and county governments on March 14.

"There is nowhere in the document that the matter of payment of salaries to the doctors for the period they did not work is captured or agreed upon," said Munya in reference to the deal that saw the doctors call off the strike.

"The deal provides that no party shall victimise the other. Subsequently, the Government withdrew all the show-cause and dismissal letters."

Mr Munya noted it was fair practice to pay workers for work done, adding that the same is upheld in labour relations.

"It would be fraudulent, unprocedural and illegal to pay doctors accumulated salaries of about Sh3.2 billion without any basis in law," he said, stressing that the Return to Work Formula was what the unionists bargained for.