• Mwachi said the university is in a desolate state and no learning is taking place.
• The more than 200 doctors are also demanding remittance of another Sh70 million statutory deductions withheld by the university.
Image: BY MATHEWS NDANYI
A medics union has said it will not call off the Moi University medical school doctor-lecturers strike until the allowances withheld by the university for two years are paid.
The allowances amount to more than Sh200 million, more than Sh1.5 million each. The strike is in its second week.
The more than 200 doctors are also demanding remittance of another Sh70 million statutory deductions withheld by the university.
Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU) national chairman Abiud Dan Mwachi led North Rift branch officials in urging Education CS George Magoha to intervene and ensure the university pays.
He said they will not bow to pressure from the university management to call off the strike.
“In fact, we have demanded that Moi University vice chancellor be removed to stop him presiding over the collapse of this institution,” Mwachi said.
He said the university is in a desolate state and no learning is taking place.
Vice chancellor Isaac Kosgey has denied being the cause of the financial woes at the university.
The medical school has more than 200 students who complain that they are idle because of the strike.
Medical students' leader Jin Rayan Wandia said learning has been disrupted due to unending problems at the institution.
“I'm a fifth year medical student, but this is my eighth year of study. With what we are going through, we may still spend more years here,” Wandia said.
KMPDU North Rift branch secretary Kamunzi Mulei and branch chairman Dawin Ambuka said the university management has not responded to their demands.
Mulei said they had issued a two-week strike notice that lapsed a week ago.
“We are in the second week of the strike, and we will not go back until the money is paid,” Mulei said.
He said the Treasury had released the money to the university after it was approved and asked why it was not released to the doctor-lecturers.
Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital management, however, said its services will not be affected by the strike.
MTRH management said, however, its services will not be affected by the strike. Hospital CEO Dr Wilson Aruasa said the facility has 320 doctors and other medics who will provide services as usual.
“Our staff has no issue with the hospital and services will run as usual," Aruasa said.
Dr Davji Bhimji Atella, who is KPMDU secretary general, met the doctors in Eldoret. He said the university management had illegally diverted more than Sh200 million released by the Treasury two years ago.
Dr Atella said they had written to the EACC to probe how the money went missing at the university, causing the doctor-lecturers to suffer even though the government had released their cash.
“The doctor-lecturers have gone on strike because the university has refused to pay the money that was released more than two years ago," Atella said.
He said the doctor-lecturers have been patient enough and dialogue to have the money released had failed.
The doctors say they had been blacklisted by financial institutions because deductions from their salaries were not being remitted by the university.
He said all medical practitioners, specialists, pharmacists and all dentists were on strike.
Edited by A.N