State House gives doctors 24-hour ultimatum to end strike
Doctors given a 24-hour ultimatum to end strike State House Chief of Staff and Head of the Public Service Felix Koskei
Doctors given a 24-hour ultimatum to end strike State House Chief of Staff and Head of the Public Service Felix Koskei.
The government has said it will take disciplinary action on all striking doctors in the country if they fail to call off the strike within 24 hours.
In addition, the Head of Public Service Felix Koskei asked the medics to return to the negotiation table in compliance with a court order.
The ultimatum was communicated in a confidential letter according to Daily Nation to the Secretary-General of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists, and Dentists Union, Davji Atellah.
The letter has also instructed the doctors to call off the strike before the Whole of Nation Approach Committee convenes.
“Take note that the Committee shall reconvene within 24 hours of KMPDU suspension of the strike ensuring full compliance with the order of the Principal Judge Byram Ongaya, of the Employment and Labour Relations Court of Kenya,” the letter reads in part.
According to the Head of Public Service, the court-mandated the Whole of the Nation Approach Committee with the mandate of resolving the instant long-running dispute in Kenya’s health sector and to achieve a sustainable solution to the ongoing negotiation and conciliation process yet the doctors have refused to call off the strike.
The State House Chief also said the court set the suspension of the industrial action as the condition precedent for the resumption of the Whole of Nation Approach Committee meetings on the health sector.
On April 3, Justice Ongaya ruled that the doctors suspend the strike and ordered that the negotiations be completed within 14 days and that the parties report back to court by April 17.
However, the doctors have maintained that are not going to be threatened or intimidated into calling off the strike.
“We are worried about the suspension and termination letters and withdrawal of paying union dues have to be avoided. When we are calling off the strike, there must be a return to work formula where the most important clause is always that there should be no victimization. We find it a little bit hard to suspend a strike without goodwill from the government,” said Dennis Miskellah, the Deputy Secretary General of KMPDU.
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“We cannot call off the strike. That would be very reckless on our side. Some negotiators will not turn up for the negotiations the moment they call off the strike,” he added.
“There is nowhere in the court stated that if the doctors fail to call off the strike then the negotiations should not continue. We are ready for negotiations and it’s the outcome of the talks that will inform our decision to suspend or continue with the strike,” Dr Miskellah explained.
“If they have never fulfilled previous commitments they made to doctors, why should we believe that calling off the strike will yield our demands? We are not being stubborn. We just have to be careful so that we are not left worse off than before the strike started,” he said.
Dr Miskellah also maintained that no amount of intimidation would make them change their stand on the strike.
“We are willing to go back to work, even as early as yesterday, but what is the bare minimum from the government? Doctors are ready to Engage, reach a consensus, and go back to work,” he said.
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