- In a statement on Monday, KNCHR said doctors have a right to picket, demonstrate and protest as enshrined in the Constitution.
- Chairperson Roseline Odede said it's about time all parties sat down for negotiations to agree on a return-to-work formula.
Image: MATHEWS NDANYI
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights has called on the government to stop threatening and intimidating striking doctors.
In a statement on Monday, KNCHR said doctors have a right to picket, demonstrate and protest as enshrined in the Constitution.
The commission instead called for provision of adequate security to the protesters and non-protesters during the demonstrations.
Chairperson Roseline Odede said it's about time all parties sat down for negotiations to agree on a return-to-work formula.
"The KNCHR calls for genuine consultations between the government and the doctors with a view to urgently resolve the outstanding issues and agree on a return to work formula," Odede said.
She raised concern that the ongoing doctors’ strike has had and will continue to have direct impact on the provision of healthcare in Kenya.
Odede said the strike has led to disruption of provision of healthcare services across all the public facilities in the country.
She noted that the State bears the primary responsibility of ensuring Kenyans enjoy their right to healthcare as provided for under the Constitution and international human rights instruments that Kenya has ratified.
"The KNCHR further notes that the strike has been on-going for a while and both parties need to have genuine discussions on a return-to-work formula for ordinary provision of healthcare services to resume," Odede said.
The disruption in healthcare services, she said, has led to loss of lives with Kenyans having to deep deeper into their pockets to seek health services from private facilities.
On Sunday, Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome said the doctors' demos had become a public nuisance and directed the police to deal with them firmly but within the confines of the law.
But in a rejoinder, KNCHR said Article 37 of the Constitution unequivocally guarantees the right of every person to peaceably while unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket and to present petitions to public authorities.
"It is the duty of the state to secure the rights of both the protesters and non-protesters," Odede said.
The Commission acknowledged that demonstrations by doctors have been largely peaceful.
It singled out isolated incidences where acts of violence and use of unnecessary and excessive force was perpetrated against members of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU).
The incident occurred during the doctors' peaceful demonstration on February 28, 2024 when KMPDU Secretary General Davji Atellah was hit and injured by a teargas canister on the head.