People Daily Team @PeopleDailyKe
Officials of doctors and nurses unions risk being thrown into civil jail for contempt of court if an application filed by the Council of Governors (CoG) to punish them for breaching a lawful order is granted.
As the debilitating doctors and nurses strike enters its fourth day, the Employment and Labour Relations Court yesterday summoned 15 officials of the two unions to appear before it on Tuesday. They are required to show cause why they should not be committed to civil jail for disobeying a court order that had barred the strike until the matter is heard and determined.
Justice Hellen Wasilwa directed Kilimani OCS to serve the officials with summon. “If they do not appear in court on Tuesday, I will not hesitate to issue warrants of arrest,” said the judge. Justice Wasilwa gave the orders after an application by the CoG citing the officials for contempt of court.
The council had moved to court on December 2 under a certificate of urgency seeking to stop the ongoing strike and sued Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) for breach of a lawful order. Justice Nelson Abuodha had issued orders suspending the strike until December 13 when the matter would be heard.
CoG argued that the nurses and doctors proceeded on an unlawful and unprotected strike, thereby gravely affecting the health and wellbeing of patients. Through lawyers Eunice Lumallas and Eva Sawe, governors say the 15 officials should be committed to civil jail for six months. However, the striking doctors and nurses remained defiant as they withdrew from negotiations to resolve the impasse that has crippled operations at public hospitals across the nation.
Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) vowed not to engage in further talks with the government, citing intimidation and frustration. Union chairman, Samuel Oroko said the government has been “dealing with them in bad faith”, adding that the medics would not back down until their demands are met.
The health workers are demanding a 300 per cent pay increase contained in a 2013 Collective Bargaining Agreement, which the government is yet to implement. And last evening, Health Cabinet secretary Cleopa Mailu released a statement showing the government’s offer that the unions rejected.
The lowest-paid doctors in job Group L was to get a Sh36,000 increase while the highest would get a Sh42,000 hike. “The government has agreed to offer to all the cadres of the medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union Quantum increase...on condition that extraneous, medical, risk allowance and other allowance and remuneration will be subjected to the CBA to be negotiated,” read part of Mailu’s statement.
Earlier yesterday, President Uhuru Kenyatta was conciliatory as he pleaded with the health workers to end their strike and give room to talks to resolve their grievances. The President, who was accompanied by his deputy William Ruto, assured health workers that a solution to the impasse would be found, but lamented the death of close to 20 patients during the crisis.
“Let us be human and be mindful of the lives of the patients. I am confident that we will find a solution to the problem,” Uhuru told the health workers, saying even when an agreement is reached “those lives will have been lost”.
The President said governors and the Ministry of Health have been working round the clock, engaging the unions to resolve the matter and called on the health workers not to let lives to be lost because of an issue being addressed. He also pointed out that if counties focused keenly on health and agriculture, a lot more could have been achieved, adding that over Sh1 trillion had been allocated to counties since 2013.
However, Cord leader Raila Odinga and Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi accused the government of laxity in dealing with the medics’ strike. Speaking in Nyeri, Raila said the government should have solved the strike three years ago. He regretted that the crisis is causing untold suffering to Kenyans.
The Opposition chief termed it an “agonising situation” seeing patients suffer and others die yet the government is not responding to health workers’ demands.
“As far as we are concerned, the government should have solved this mess three years ago. We feel they have not created the necessary infrastructure to deal with such matters since doctors are responsible people who can listen to the plight of Kenyans,’’ said Raila.
Mudavadi urged the government to honour the 2013 CBA. Meanwhile, a woman died at a Kitui hospital yesterday while all patients admitted vacated the facility. The woman, who was suffering from a terminal ailment, succumbed to illness at mid-night. Anguish and suffering of patients was reported in public hospitals from across the country.
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