Medics' strike litmus test of State's sincerity in revamping healthcare

Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union members demonstrate along Eldoret streets Uasin Gishu County on March 21, 2024. [Peter Ochieng, Standard]

Strikes paralyse. Well, that is the point! A strike that does not paralyse humbles the protestors' self-perception. If the world can move on when you are on strike implies a case of an overstated value and inflated importance-a mockery and joke. But for doctors, a mere hour of absence has life and death consequences. Their muscle has real effects when flexed. Any signs of their dissatisfaction should be picked up early and negotiated to keep them behind hospital walls.

Different strikes paralyse differently. For some, the paralysis will kick in softly while others it will kill quickly. A doctors' strike hits differently from a drivers', though the strike premises may be similar. The strike by medics is in an 'oxygen' category - air fails to reach the organs, with life-altering consequences. By the time the medics go back to work, body parts will have been compromised and life-long conditions developed. When hospitals shut down, graveyards open for extended hours. Somehow morgue attendants are not part of the strike-otherwise the air would be fouled to uninhabitable levels.