- The striking medical practitioners walked from Kenyatta National Hospital to Afya House.
- The doctors chanted 'Nakhumicha must go' and 'Solidarity Forever' as they strolled the city streets.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union on Friday led protests demanding the posting of interns by the Ministry of Health.
KMPDU secretary general Davji Atellah said the doctors were being frustrated.
He called on the government to honour the Collective Bargaining Agreement made seven years ago by posting interns and remunerating them fairly for their services.
"Seven years later, the signed CBA is being disowned. The same CBA is a court order. The government has not yet implemented the basic salary in the CBA," Atellah claimed outlining the union's demands.
"The comprehensive medical cover has been disowned, medical interns have not been posted, postgraduate training has also been disowned and doctors are not being employed."
The striking medical practitioners walked from Kenyatta National Hospital to Afya House.
The doctors chanted 'Nakhumicha must go' and 'Solidarity Forever' as they strolled the city streets.
Atellah said that the doctors will stay on strike until their demands are met.
The 2022 presidential candidate Reuben Kigame who joined the protests claimed that promises made to health officials had been broken.
He expressed frustration over the rate of joblessness among Kenyan youth.
He urged the government to fix the health system before sending out nurses abroad.
"Hatutakubali nurses wetu waende kutibu watu huko nje na watoto wetu wanakufa hapa," Kigame said.
(We will not allow our nurses to treat patients outside Kenya yet our children are dying).
Philip Otieno, a medical doctor called for the government to address their demands with immediate effect.
He said their profession was being undermined.
"Internship is a right not a privilege because it is through internship that you get the license to practice as a medical doctor," Otieno said.
The doctors are demanding that the government immediately post medical interns and clear the basic salary arrears for doctors as per the 2017 collective bargaining agreement.
The ministry had in previous responses to the doctors said the posting and payment of interns would require Sh4.9 billion, funds that Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha says her ministry does not have.
On March 18, the doctors maintained that their strike was still on until all their demands were met.