Clinicians on Monday held peaceful demonstrations to demand among others, the posting of interns and the absorption of UHC staff.
The clinicians led by the Kenya Union of Clinical officers’ chairperson Peterson Wachira presented a petition to the Ministry of Health and Parliament.
The union last month had given the Ministry of Health 14 days to ensure that 1,848 interns were posted.
The interns were due to be posted in December 2022.
Wachira said the clinical officer interns are supposed to be posted as a legal provision since it's a prerequisite for them to be licensed to practice.
They are also demanding that UHC staff be put on permanent and pensionable terms after the government decided to extend the contracts for another three years under the same terms.
The term of the more than 8,550 staff is expected to end in May.
“We do not have a problem if the government cannot put them on PnP or extend the contract but what we are saying, can we pay these people equally with how we are paying the officers doing equivalent work?” he posed.
Their petition was received by Molo MP Kuria Kimani at Parliament who promised to ensure their grievances are addressed.
“Your petition is properly received it is properly in order and some of us who value professionalism will be there on the floor of the House to support this,” Kimani said.
Last week, the ministry defended the move to extend the contracts of UHC staff for another three years instead of hiring them on permanent and pensionable terms.
Head of Preventive and Promotive Health at the ministry Andrew Mulwa had said the government at the moment does not have the resources required to employ them on a permanent and pensionable.
Mulwa said the decision to hire them on the contract was arrived at with the hope that the economy would have grown to absorb them by the time they come to an end three years later.
