Doctors Call Off Their Strike, Sign a Return-to-Work Formula With Government

By Moses Muli

Published: May 8,2024 6:10 PM

The long-standing doctors’ strike has finally come to an end after 56 days as the government and the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) signed a return-to-work formula.

This comes after the Employment and Labour Relations Court ordered the union and the government to come up with an agreeable return-to-work formula by Wednesday.

KMPDU on Tuesday presented before the court a separate document from what the government had presented, prompting the judge to issue the Wednesday deadline, saying failure to which it would be forced determine the matter.

The union and the government entities – through the Council of Governors (CoG) and the Ministry of Health – were for the better part of Tuesday evening holed up in a meeting to resolve the stalemate.

KMPDU Secretary General Dr. Davji Atellah had, in the mean time, postponed the doctors’ peaceful protests to an unnamed date to pave the way for the negotiations.

Since March 14, doctors have abandoned their duty stations and have been protesting the government’s failure to post medical interns and obey a 2017 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) on medics’ labour terms.

They have held long-running negotiations with a ‘Whole of the Nation Approach’ committee bringing together the Ministry of Health, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission and the Head of Public Service.

But the talks were largely unfruitful after the government presented a Ksh.70,000 offer for the medical interns in place of the Ksh.206,000 set in the 2017 CBA.