• KUCO said the assertion that the demos are obstructing major public highways and roads thereby disrupting vehicular flow and pedestrian movement lacks substantiation.
• “KUCO unequivocally denounces the IG's statements as baseless and fabricated with the intent to misinform the public."
Image: WILLISH ADUR
Clinicians have rubbished claims by the Inspector General of Police Japheth Koome that demonstrations by striking healthcare workers constitute a public nuisance.
The Kenya Union of Clinical Officers (KUCO) said the assertion that the demonstrations are obstructing major public highways and roads thereby disrupting vehicle flow and pedestrian movement lacks substantiation.
This is even as the union plans to hold demonstrations on Tuesday to push for the implementation of their demands.
“The insinuation that the use of whistles and vuvuzelas during demonstrations constitutes a public nuisance causing discomfort to patients and disrupting hospital operations is unfounded,” KUCO SG George Gibore said.
“KUCO unequivocally denounces the IG's statements as baseless and fabricated with the intent to misinform the public,” Gibore added.
The SG noted that demonstrations by healthcare workers have been conducted peacefully without any reported incidents of obstruction or disruption.
He said the statement by Koome echoes the sentiments expressed by Interior CS Kithure Kindiki last week, who purportedly sought to halt lawful demonstrations without citing any legal grounds.
He said individuals, patients, or hospitals have lodged no complaints regarding the demonstrations.
“We advise that instead of instilling fear to the public and the striking clinical officers and doctors, the IG should focus on maintaining law and order and apprehending perpetrators, rather than casting aspersions on the striking healthcare workers and the public,” Gibore said.
Koome on Sunday said medics have become a public nuisance through their demonstrations.
He highlighted that medics during their demonstrations while blowing whistles and vuvuzelas, cause discomfort to patients in hospitals and the general public.
“The Service has witnessed and received reports of the inconveniences arising from the strike, with medics lying on the streets thus obstructing highways, public roads and disrupting the free flow of vehicles and movement of people,” Koome said.
Koome cautioned all doctors to refrain from infringing on the rights of others while demonstrating.
He added that their efforts to disrupt the smooth operations of hospitals will not be tolerated.
Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union, Law Society of Kenya and a number of human rights groups have threatened to sue Koome over the ongoing doctors' strike.
According to them, no constitutional article conditions the right to strike or to picket on a notice given to the IG.