In a mounting crisis within the health sector, the Kenya Environmental Health and Public Health Practitioners Union, alongside the Pharmaceutical Technologists and Nutritionists, have issued an ultimatum to the Ministry of Health.
With a looming seven-day deadline, the unions have laid down three non-negotiable demands, threatening to escalate their actions by joining the ongoing doctors' strike if their grievances remain unaddressed.
At a press conference convened by the Union of Pharmaceutical Technologies, the Union for Nutritionists, and the Kenya Health Professional Society, the unions asserted their primary demand for recognition.
Brown Ashira, General Secretary for the Kenya Environmental Health and Public Health Practitioners Union, stressed, "The issue about recognition agreement is paramount. We have met the requisite requirements, and recognition is warranted."
Additionally, the unions are pressing for an immediate halt to discrimination and inadequate pay affecting post-interns, including public health interns, nutritionist interns, and pharmaceutical interns.
Their demands, directed to Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha, also include the absorption of all Universal Health Coverage staff and COVID-19 response teams.
Warning of dire consequences if their demands are not met within the stipulated timeframe, Ashira stated, "If the seven days lapse and they have not done that, we are going to cause a crisis – the grandfather of all crises in the health sector, let alone what is happening right now."
The timing of this ultimatum coincides with the persisting calls for dialogue between doctors and the government amidst the ongoing doctors' strike, now entering its twentieth day and causing widespread disruption in hospitals nationwide.
Speaking at the burial of a one-year-old girl who tragically died due to lack of medical care, Tharaka Member of Parliament George Murugara emphasised the urgent need for action from the Ministry of Health.
Murugara appealed for both sides to engage in constructive dialogue, urging doctors to consider the impact of their strike on the lives of ordinary citizens.
"So doctors must also humble themselves, become human beings, talk to the government quickly, call off this strike and our lives will go back to normalcy. We will not have lost this angel if the doctors were not on strike," Murugara stated passionately.
