Patients continue to suffer as salary talks collapse

Kenyans will continue suffering following the collapse of talks between the Government and doctors Thursday.

It emerged that after six hours of closed-door talks with periodic breaks, only an offer of Sh50,000 was made by the Government to cover two job groups–L and M.

The finer details meant that only interns and medical officers would get a salary raise. In effect, the offer only raise the salary for the lowest paid doctor to Sh176,000, a far cry from the Sh325,000 that the doctors expect and which was contained in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

Sources within the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) told The Standard that the offer was too little.

"The offer did not make sense to us because it was silent on the six other job groups, because doctors structure has job groups L to T," said the insider who declined to named.

After the offer was tabled, union members led by secretary general Ouma Oluga and chairman Samuel Oroko stepped out to consult.

But during the 15 minutes consultative break, union officials were made aware of summons to appear in court on Tuesday next week. Justice Hellen Wasilwa issued the orders and instructed Kilimani Officer Commanding Station to assist in the process of securing the attendance of the officials.

The orders are based on a case where the Council of Governors moved to court on ground that union officials were in breach of a court order, suspending doctors strike for 30 days to allow negotiations. The order also stopped nurse's strike till December 13.

It is at this point, that the talks collapsed. The officials explained the talks had collapsed and demanded withdrawal of all court cases before talks can resume.

"Until the Government withdraws the arrest warrant, there is no negotiations," he said.

The court issued summons to the top union officials to appear in court on December 13 to answer to charges of disobeying court orders issued on December 2 that suspended the strike, and which the doctors say they were not served.

Broke silence

It also emerged that the Government side shifted goal posts, proposing that the CBA be discussed in the context of the October 6 ruling that had given the two parties 90 days to go back and discuss the CBA before going back to court.

The Government side was represented by Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu, Principal Secretary Nicholas Muraguri, CoG chairman Peter Munya, National Treasury representative and Director of medical Services Jackson Kioko. This was happening on a day President Uhuru Kenyatta broke his silence on the strike and pleaded with the medics to go back to work as a solution was being sought.

"No one has refused to talk to you. We are ready. And a solution will be found. Let's be persons who respect human lives," President Kenyatta said. Speaking at Makindu, Uhuru asked doctors and nurses to save lives. "We should not say that we must be satisfied before we serve," he said.