Doctors in Mombasa on Thursday issued a 14-day notice to the County Government of Mombasa threatening to close their clinics and health facilities.
The private sector doctors led by the Kenya Medical Association (KMA) made this announcement after a meeting at the KMA Pandya hall.
The doctors’ threat came on the back of what they claim are illegal demands by the Mombasa County Government. They decried that the county was unlawfully demanding payments for single business permits.
“County governments have been demanding payments of single business permits; a contravention of a judgment issued by the Constitutional and Human Rights Division of the High Court in Nairobi,” the statement read.
“The county of Mombasa has been in defiance of this court order and has been sending its officers to harass doctors in clinics and further solicit bribes despite being shown the court orders and letters by our members,” the doctors further went on.
The doctors stated that on top of the unlawful demands, the county had also hiked the fees payable without factoring in the input of various stakeholders.
“In addition, the county government has increased the fees payable by doctors and private healthcare facilities in the county through its finance act that did not consider stakeholder submission like the country’s Finance Bill 2024 that was eventually withdrawn,” the doctors stated.
KMA added that the fees demanded were higher than the fees the doctors paid to the regulatory authority Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC).
“The amounts demanded are higher than the licensing fees we pay to the regulatory body, KMPDC. For instance, facilities running outpatient services are required to pay Ksh39,000, hospitals at level 2 and 3 Ksh200,000 and level 4-6 Ksh700,000 annually,” they stated.
The doctors added that in addition to paying the permit fees, they also had to pay the annual licensing fee. This, they claimed, was an illegal double taxation. “The charging of business permits in addition to the annual licensing fee by the regulatory government is not only unconstitutional but double taxation,” they claimed.
KMA declared that they would take the matter up to the Ethics and Anticorruption Commission (EACC) and warned the county government against their illegal actions. “The county government should immediately cease sending their officers to our facilities and clinics. We will go ahead and file a complaint with the EACC regarding this matter,” they affirmed.
Further, they advised their medical officers against paying the demanded fees. KMA noted that they would increase their service charges if the county government persisted with their demands.
“Effective immediately all medical and dental practitioners and health facilities in Mombasa county will not pay the single business permits fees, it is unconstitutional. Should the county government insist on payment we will have no alternative but to review our fees upwards and pass this cost to the citizens of Mombasa,” KMA declared.
The closure notice comes after the Kenyan Medical Practitioners Pharmaceuticals and Dentists Union (KMPDU) in early November threatened to down their tools if the government did not pay interns and address other pressing concerns.
