Kenyans on social media have asked the President to ensure striking doctors are paid so that nobody else dies during the strike that is now on its second day.
Almost 10 people have been reported to have died at several hospitals across the country, following the strike that doctors have warned will be the worst.
Doctors have demanded the implementation of the 2013 CBA, through which they will get a 300 per cent pay rise.
Their working conditions, job structures and criteria for promotions will also be reviewed, and the matter of under-staffing addressed.
Kenyans on Twitter asked the government to ensure all these demands are met to prevent more deaths and health complications from lack of treatment.
Immac Nyamu said:
"I now pity my (child) who wants to become a doctor. It is heartbreaking to see the government doing this to our doctors."
Joe Logami demanded that President Uhuru Kenyatta's Jubilee government should allocate funds for paying the doctors.
"So a billion shillings (in funds that were not budgeted for) is easily available for shuttle diplomacy to get Amina to the AU, but none for doctors," he wrote.
Silas Silo blamed the government for the deaths that have occurred since Monday while
Enos Chetambe said peaceful negotiations were
possible.
"We do not have to use abusive
language
for doctors to be paid. It is their right... They must be paid," he said.
Shocking births, many stranded
Two babies were born outside Murang'a and Bungoma hospitals hours after the doctors began their strike on Monday.
In Nairobi, patients of Mathari hospital escaped as the medics gathered to officially join their colleagues in the strike.
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At the Migori county hospital, relatives took care of their sick by dressing wounds, washing items and buying medicine.
They had been told to clear their bills by noon on Monday and leave the hospitals as no health worker would attend to them.
Eunice Adhiambo, 21, who had been admitted with burn wounds for two weeks, said her relatives were the ones taking care of her.
“A relative dressed me and requested the list of medicines I was using so he could buy them at a private chemist,” she said.
Caroline Asala and Millicent Achola took care of a teenage girl and an elderly woman in the surgical ward.
“Her wounds need to be cleaned every day before re-stitching is done. No one has attended to us today,” said Asala.
The two said the alternative would have been to pay Sh300 to Sh400 for nurses to help them.
“We have been forced to buy painkillers outside the facility nobody has attended to us,” said Achola.
County chief
health officer Dalmas Onyango was in his office but refused to address the press.
Alex Otieno, the secretary of Kenya Union of Civil Servants in Migori county asked medics practising privately to help them.
But he said patients across the country should direct their anger to the national and county governments, which he said were to blame.