NAIROBI, KENYA: Major operation has been launched as more than 100 mental patients escape from Mathari Hospital in Nairobi over the ongoing doctors and nurses’ strike.
Medics began strike on Monday with Police firing tear gas to disperse hundreds demonstrating over pay and conditions outside health ministry in Nairobi.
The medics, swearing white gowns and surgical caps, were demanding the government honour a 2013 deal to increase their salaries.
The members of the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists' Union, all working for state hospitals, marched on to another part of the capital
In a press conference Sunday night, Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu said the ministry was scheduled to meet union officials at 5:30pm on Sunday but the officials did not show up.
Mr Mailu said the strike notice by Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) and Kenya Medical Practitioners and Pharmacists Union (KMPDU) was premature as the 90 days a court had given medics and the State to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement had not yet elapsed.
The Health ministry, Treasury, Council of Governors and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) had a day-long meeting yesterday over the impending strike. In the meeting, SRC boss Sarah Serem presented a review of the salary scale for health workers, which Treasury said it can implement but over time.
The Health ministry was to present this review to the unions at the 5:30pm meeting but officials did not show up. Mailu said the officials may have been holed up in another meeting. He said the ministry was willing to negotiate and pleaded with health workers to report to work today to prevent a health crisis that may lead to loss of lives. Earlier, health workers warned Kenyans to prepare for the longest strike in history.