Nairobi among seven counties yet to pay their striking doctors
Seven counties have not paid more than 300 striking doctors their December salaries, the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) has disclosed.
Union officials named Mombasa, Bomet, Kwale, Siaya, Nakuru, Nairobi and another county which they did not disclose among those still holding onto the doctors’ salaries.
They however said that 40 counties had so far paid doctors, who are taking part in a nationwide strike in a bid to force the government to implement a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that they signed with the Ministry of Health in 2013.
KMPPDU Secretary-General Ouma Oluga and his chairman Samuel Oroko however said the respective counties must pay the striking doctors their salaries even after boycotting duties.
NOT PERTURBED
“In the past six months, doctors have not been earning salaries in various counties; so we are not perturbed” said Dr Oluga in Mombasa over the weekend, when he met more than 100 doctors from seven Coast counties.
“Counties have also been delaying salaries, so let them keep the salaries for us. But they will pay all of it.”
Speaking at Mbaraki Sports Club, the unionists urged doctors from Lamu, Kilifi, Tana River, Kwale, Mombasa and Taita-Taveta counties to stay put.
Contacted for a comment, Mombasa Health Executive Mohamed Abdi did not respond to text messages from the Nation correspondent.
His counterpart from Kwale, Mr Kishindo Mwaleso, said the county will not pay striking doctors their December salaries since they did not work.
“We got a circular from the Ministry of Health and the Council of Governors to only pay health workers who worked in December,” said Dr Mwaleso.
“You are paid when you work.”
Dr Mwaleso however said the county government had paid other cadre of health workers.
NOT BEEN PAID
He said 40 doctors from the county had not been paid.
Dr Oroko claimed that there were cartels in the medical insurance sector in the private sector who were running and ruining the healthcare service.
“The cartels dictate which facility a patient is going to be seen,” said. “They dictate which doctor will see a given patient.
“Since when did non-doctors decide which doctor to see which patient? Since when did non-doctors decide which hospital their client is supposed to go?”
Dr Oroko said some doctors are denied opportunity to go for study leave, forcing them to quit public service.
