Government Grapples with Dual Crisis: Doctors’ Strike Enters 30th Day as Teachers Threaten Walkou
The doctors’ union has remained adamant, and on Tuesday, hundreds of doctors took part in protests and presented a petition to parliament urging lawmakers to intervene in their labor dispute.

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Since the government of the day took power, the doctors’ strike hit them for the first time. Meanwhile, teachers have issued a strike warning to the government, stating that if they do not receive all capitation funds by the start of the second term on April 30th, they will also down their tools.
The doctors’ strike dust continues across the country; as of today, it marks 30 days since its commencement. Doctors want their 2017 agreement to be met, and nothing less. In 2017, the government, under former President Uhuru Kenyatta, and union officials signed a deal to address pay and other issues in dispute, said the then Secretary-General of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists, and Dentists Union, Ouma Oluga. During this period, dozens of people died during the strike, as the majority of Kenyans cannot afford private healthcare.
The doctors pushed for the implementation of a 2013 collective bargaining agreement that committed the government to increasing pay and restoring dilapidated public health facilities, among other issues. It also set out measures to address the East African country’s huge shortage of doctors.
The former government under President Uhuru Kenyatta said it does not recognize the 2013 agreement. Similarly, the current government under the Council of Governors wants the 2017 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists, and Dentists Union (KMPDU) and the government to be re-examined, saying it contains components that are not only difficult to implement but also unreasonable.
According to Council of Governors Health Committee Chairperson and Tharaka Nithi Governor Muthomi Njuki, 95% of doctors have individual contracts with each of the 47 counties, and thus their continued stay in the streets is unwarranted. “I will not stand here on behalf of the Council of Governors (CoG) and say that the terms were signed under duress. Some of those terms that have been put there are the ones I am talking about,” Njuki said at the Quality Healthcare Kenya Awards held in Nairobi on Friday.
The Kenyan government under President Uhuru Kenyatta started cracking down on the striking doctors by firing masses of them for missing work without reason and taking part in an illegal strike. The government withdrew a 50 percent pay rise offer among other benefits that were meant to woo the doctors back and warned that it would not “succumb to threats and intimidation.” It ordered the doctors to resume work or face disciplinary action.
The Kenyatta University Referral Hospital said new doctors had been hired in place of those striking as it laid off 100 doctors who are taking part in a nationwide strike that has been ongoing for almost a month, its management said on April 9th, 2024.
Doctors in Kenya went on a nationwide strike in March 13th, demanding better pay and working conditions. President William Ruto on Sunday April 8th broke his silence over the strike, saying there was no money to pay striking doctors. “We must be honest with ourselves, and the truth is that we must live within our means; we can’t borrow money to pay salaries,” Ruto said.
The doctors’ union has remained adamant, and on Tuesday, hundreds of doctors took part in protests and presented a petition to parliament urging lawmakers to intervene in their labor dispute.
This is not the first time Kenyan doctors are striking over poor pay and working conditions. In 2017, doctors took part in a 100-day strike that saw people dying from lack of care. The strike ended with the doctors’ union signing an agreement with the government to increase their pay.
Doctors now say part of what was agreed upon in 2017 has not been implemented. The then government dodged this agreement, and Kenya signed a health agreement with Cuba, which, according to the Ministry of Health, actualized an exchange program where Cuban doctors would come into the country to help fill gaps in county hospitals while Kenyan doctors were to be sent to Cuba for specialized training.
For a start, Cuba’s healthcare system is regarded as one of the best in the world. This is a result of the late Fidel Castro, the Cuban leader who, through his revolutionary socialist ideology, regarded accessibility to healthcare as a fundamental right of Cuban citizens.
Under the agreement with Kenya, the first batch of Cuban doctors touched down in Nairobi from Havana in 2018. This included 53 family doctors and 47 specialists.
The doctors had come at what was said to be the request of county governments, and their contract would last two years before any further action would be taken. After Kenya Kwanza took power on October 3rd, 2023, Kenya’s government announced it would not be renewing a 6-year-old deal that saw Cuban doctors employed in Kenya while those from the East African country traveled to Cuba for specialized training.
The program was unpopular with Kenya’s main doctors union, partly because the Cuban doctors received more than double the average salary of their Kenyan counterparts. Critics argued that money would be better spent on Kenya’s medical infrastructure and on its own doctors.
CS of health Wafula Nakumicha announced the end of the Cuba deal at a meeting with health industry workers in the capital, Nairobi, and was met with applause and shouts of “yes, yes!” Wafula said the ministry would ensure that the country’s health workers are “well taken care of.”
On March 27, 2024, a meeting was held with the government where KMPDU Secretary-General Dr. Davji Atellah accused the government of coming to the negotiating table with insincere intentions. The union remains adamant that it will only call off the strike once it has a return-to-work formula. It further demands a commitment from the government on the 19 key grievances that led to the strike.
There is no end in sight for the doctors’ strike, after talks meant to resolve the impasse between the striking medics and their employers on Wednesday afternoon broke down. For the second time in a one-week span, talks between the government and the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists, and Dentists Union (KMPDU) have hit a snag. The court-sanctioned mediation talks aimed at arriving at a return-to-work formula collapsed after the government allegedly demanded that doctors call off the strike before the talks proceed.
As the doctors’ strike dust continues, CS Nakumicha is busy on top of cars and funeral events, saying how cartels are fighting her for reducing SHIF contribution to Ksh 300 and firing OCPD at Matisi corner using the One Government Approach (OGA).
The question is, firing doctors a solution for striking doctors? Will those newly employed doctors never demand a better working field like the ones on strike demand?
Report by Jesse Abisheck
Email abijessyshi@gmail.com