The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) has threatened to kickstart a nationwide strike of doctors, following the Kiambu County and National Government's reluctance to resolve the ongoing Kiambu doctors' strike.
For the past 55 days, hospital operations in Kiambu County hospitals have been in paralysis after doctors downed their tools, citing a lack of promotions, punitive actions against doctors who raise concerns, and inadequate medical cover.
In a press briefing on Monday, July 21, the KMPDU Secretary General Davji Atellah said that the nationwide strike would symbolize the unity and togetherness of the Union.
Atellah further claimed that the Union will also hold a "mega" demonstration in Kiambu town on Thursday, July 24, to call out the government's failure to address the grievances raised by the medics.
According to the union, despite effort to engage in meaningful deliberations with the county government to engineer strategies that would resolve the strike, no action has been taken by the county government, a move Atellah claims undermines the dignity of doctors and patients in the county.
"This strike is for the dignity of the doctors and the dignity of the patients in the county. Today marks day 55 of this strike, and we are not seeing an end anytime soon, because the county government has decided to be unreasonable," Atellah said.
"As a union, we don't act as fragmented entities; we act as a union, and when a doctor is frustrated in Kiambu, it does not sit well with a doctor in Mombasa and Kisumu, and therefore, we are having plans to escalate this strike to a nationwide strike," he added.
Atellah has further urged the Health Cabinet Secretary, Aden Duale, to withdraw all the 150 medical interns in Kiambu, stressing that the inability of the government to support health services in Kiambu will dent the interns' ability to attain top health skills.
"We would like the health minister to ensure that all the interns in Kiambu county, the cohort of 2024/2025, are withdrawn immediately because there is no way we will say that we have intern doctors in Kiambu and yet the county government cannot support the services," he added.
The statement comes two months after the Kiambu county government, in a statement on Wednesday, May 28, revealed that it had begun the process of sacking striking doctors, whom it accused of endangering the lives of patients.
According to the County Executive Committee Member for Health, Elias Maina, who confirmed that the county had already dismissed an undisclosed number of medical workers, said that the county had invested a considerable sum from the Ksh8 billion annual county budget in the healthcare sector, and stressed that the investment must be matched by accountability from healthcare workers.
“We have started taking action against doctors who failed to report to work. A headcount is ongoing to establish those who absconded from duty, and they will be replaced immediately with equally qualified professionals,” Maina said.
