Saturday Nation
Date: 07.01.2017
Page 2
Article size: 415 cm2
ColumnCM: 92.22
AVE: 189055.55
Doctors reject new pay offer pushing
BY LEOPOLD OBI
AND VERAH OKEYO
[email protected]
Striking doctors yesterday re­
jected a 40 per cent payrise
offered by President Uhuru
Kenyatta on Wednesday and vowed
not to go back to work, dashing
hopes that health services that
have been grounded for the last
one month would resume.
The doctors, who downed their
If they had taken the offer,
the least paid doctor would have
taken home a monthly salary of
Shl96,989 up from the current
Shl40,244. The proposal had also
included allowances in various job
groups. The meeting came after
doctors called on the President to
exercise his executive authority to
tools on December 5 paralysing end the strike.
operations in public hospitals coun­
On the other hand, the CBA,
trywide, called a press conference
which the doctors are fighting
yesterday in which they announced
for, contains a 100 per cent sal­
that their work boycott was still on
since what the President had of­ ary increase for the least­paid
doctor, about 75 per cent for the
fered had been presented to them
highest­paid, bearable working
before by the government.
conditions and other human re­
Only the full implementation of
source concerns.
a Collective Bargaining Agreement
Responding to the doctors'
signed in 2013 and which includes
standpoint, the government said
a 100 per cent pay increase would
the CBA could not be implemented
move them to resume work, the
in its current state.
Kenya Medical Practitioners,
Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa
Pharmacists and Dentists' Union
Mailu said the agreement was not
(KMPDU) secretary­general, Dr
aligned with the public service
Ouma Oluga, said at Railways
guidelines on remuneration.
club in Nairobi.
"The government has been
Dr Oluga said he had consulted
considerate towards the plight of
members of the union and that they doctors but what the doctors' union
had "politely rejected the incre­
is seeking is not within the frame­
ment of allowances and preferred
works of the public service," said Dr
implementation of the CBA."
Mailu at Treasury Buildings.
The President's offer presented
Prof Margaret Kobia, the
in Mombasa on January 4 in a
chairperson of the Public Service
meeting attended by the doctors'
Commission, said the CBA had
union officials, the Health minis­
ignored the fact that the county
try and Treasury included an array
government is the employer of
of allowances across various job
about 80 per cent of the doctors.
groups that would have raised the
She said the 40 per cent pay
salary of the least paid doctor by
rise offered by the government
40 per cent.
was a significant increment that
the doctors should not have turned
down.
One of the series of tweets on the
Union
officials
KMPDU Twitter account yesterday
read: "The government's offer fails
to capture the salary structure that
was agreed collectively between us
and the government."
Today marks a month and three
days since the national strike that
has seen more than 7,000 doctors
in public hospitals down their tools
begun.
Prof Tom Kwasa, who has prac­
say the
tised medicine for more than four
decades, described the boycott as
"possibly the worst by doctors in
Kenya" as it threatens other proc­
esses that rely on public hospitals
such as the training of medical
government
proposal
does not
reflect
wishes
of their
members
students.
Yesterday, Kenya's two referral
hospitals that also act as train­
ing centres for medical students
— Kenyatta National Hospital and
Moi Teaching and Referral Hos­
pital in Eldoret — remain closed
since the consultants who train
the students on clinical practice
are on strike.
The doctors said they had been
tossed around from one arm of the
government to the other since the
CBA was signed in June 2013 before
health had been fully devolved.
According to Dr Sultani Ma­
tendechero, who was KMPDU
secretary­general during the sign­
ing, the agreement was supposed to
have taken effect in July 2013.
Ipsos Kenya ­ Acorn House,97 James Gichuru Road ­ Lavington ­ Nairobi ­ Kenya
Saturday Nation
Date: 07.01.2017
Page 2
Article size: 415 cm2
ColumnCM: 92.22
AVE: 189055.55
Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union Secretary Gen­
eral Dr Ouma Oluga (right) and chairman Dr Oroko Samuel during a recent
press conference, file i nation
Ipsos Kenya ­ Acorn House,97 James Gichuru Road ­ Lavington ­ Nairobi ­ Kenya