‘Ksh.200K for medical interns is unreasonable!’ Government says
3 min read
Government Spokesperson Isaac Mwaura says Ksh.200K for medical interns is unreasonable!
Government Spokesperson Isaac Mwaura says Ksh.200K for medical interns is unreasonable!
Government Spokesperson Isaac Mwaura has faulted medical doctors over their ongoing countrywide strike terming their demands as unreasonable.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Mwaura claimed that the requests made by the medical professionals were malicious and that their main goal was to undermine the Social Health Act and the Universal Health Care pilot project.
Citing the high cost of living and the nation’s debt, he said that the 2017 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA)’s present provisions, which call for doctors to grant medical interns a Ksh. 200,000 monthly stipend, are impractical.
Mwaura rescinded the terms contained in the CBA claiming that the government had been coerced to agree to the terms at the time through similar strikes thus it was not signed in goodwill.
“The government is surprised that the doctors continue to strike and the industrial strike is unprotected and illegal because we know very well that there is no way you can say that an intern should be paid Ksh.200,000 under a CBA signed under duress,” said Mwaura.
The Government Spokesperson went on to refer to the doctors as selfish in their demands, as he compared them to other professionals in the country whose interns he claimed earn between Ksh.15,000 and 25,000.
This, he added, is despite the fact that most doctors also run and manage their own personal clinics on the side illegally.
“We only have other professions like the lawyers that are paid Ksh.15,000 on internship…the public service internship programme pays all the other professions Ksh.25,000. There is no way that you can say that this can only apply to doctors, they are already,” Mwaura said.
More pain to employees as KRA slaps them with another tax
Kenyatta University Teaching Hospital fires 100 striking doctors, hires foreign health staff
Several feared dead after Al-Shabaab attack in Lamu
List of counties employing more than 90% of staff from one community
Family of FOUR buried alive after their house was swept by mudslide
NTSA publishes new regulations on school transportation
“These are the same people who are also practising privately with no practising allowances, they are running their own clinics that are unregulated…it is not like before, we have many doctors who are not employed. It is unfair to say that people should not get their internship letters when they have been posted to them.”
He added: “These are people just trying to sabotage the Social Health Act because it requires that you don’t practice privately while you are working publicly because that is two salaries.”
The Spokesperson therefore maintained that the country could not afford to agree to the medics’ terms and therefore they should return to work as a show of ethics in their profession.
“These people are telling us to pay USD1500 when they know we cannot afford such kind of money so we are calling them to resume work,” he stated.
“Doctors in Kenya are some of the most paid the world over and are making a kill out of people’s misery and we need to tell them that it is not a question of being compensated but a question of service when you are in a medical profession.”
Also read,
MP apologise to President Ruto after Kemosi Mogaka rejected ambassadorial job offer
Ruto to send missionaries to speak to bandits
New plan to block Raila from clinching AUC seat
Ruto nominee rejects president’s ambassadorial job
President Ruto makes new changes in Hustler Fund
Follow us
