Doctors have said they will go on strike on December 1 to protest government’s failure to honour the Return-to-Work Formula (RTWF) they signed back on May 8.
The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists (KMPDU) Secretary General Davji Atellah said the government has had seven months to implement the agreed salary scales but has failed to do so.
The SG who spoke at a press conference flanked by a number of union officials and intern doctors said this time round, they will not embrace the spirit of dialogue.
“We are saying this without any fear of contradiction that when we call strike nobody should come to us and sell to us the aspect of goodwill or the aspect of negotiation because seven months is far too long for somebody to keep on making promises.
“It will be time to implement the agreements that were signed and adopted as court orders.”
Atellah said the announcement will be made on November 30 during the national delegates conference at the Safari Park hotel, Nairobi.
The conference will bring together doctors from the public and private sectors with the sole agenda to issue a national strike to ask the government to honour its side of the bargain, Atellah said.
“We know it will be a sad situation that time but the government is entirely responsible because they are failing to honour agreements and they are failing to honour court orders,” he said.
“The government will equally take the blame for the innocent Kenyans who will lose their lives during our total shutdown that is coming in the month of December.”
Atellah further said the government is solely responsible for the deaths of two intern medical doctors who have lost their lives in a span of two months.
Dr Desiree Moraa, who worked at Gatundu Level 5 Hospital, was on September 24 found dead on the balcony of her bedroom apartment while a pharmacist was Tuesday reported dead.
He was stationed at the Thika Level 5 Hospital.
Atellah ordered all intern doctors to stay home immediately as they continued to push for the betterment of their welfare.
He lamented that the government was banking on the intern doctors to implement universal health coverage while at the same time subjecting them to unfavourable working conditions that were pushing them into desperation.
 “We are saddened by the two lives that we have lost; these are children of persons, these are persons that are dedicated to serve Kenyans. And because of the doing of the government, they have decided erratically to change what has existed for the last seven years without any goodwill or good intention to solve it.”
Atellah said their goodwill to embrace dialogue has been mistaken for weakness.
“We will go on strike in the month of December because the government does not care about Kenyans. They are very much caring about deductions and taxes but not about service delivery.”
Doctors ended their previous strike on May 8 after 56 days of intense negotiations with the Ministry of Health.
 In addressing the underlying systemic issues that precipitated the strike, the then Health CS Susan Nakhumicha said the government would review staffing norms and standards, enhance HRH coordination through the Kenyan Health Human Resource Advisory Council, and establish an intergovernmental task force to address unresolved issues.
The negotiations that resolved the impasse were spearheaded by the Whole-of-Nation approach committee led by Head of Public Service Felix Koskei and the Industrial and Labour Relations court which facilitated the resolution.
