Paul Muhoho and Winstone Chiseremi @PeopleDailyKe
Doctors employed in the public health sector have until this morning to suspend their 100-day strike and undertake to return to work soon.
The Court of Appeal yesterday issued an ultimatum to the doctors, who downed their tools last December 5, the Health ministry and Council of Governors, the last chance at mediation to resolve their stalemate that has crippled public service countrywide.
The parties are expected to report this morning the outcome of the reconciliation efforts by the Inter-Religious Council of Kenya regarding the contentious return-to-work formula that has proved to be the major obstacle to a truce.
The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) yesterday lodged documentary drafts to end the strike and pave way for the signing of the 2017-2021 recognition agreement and Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
Resume duty But the Health ministry and Council of Governors remained adamant that the doctors must resume duty before their grievances can be entertained.
Justices Martha Koome, Hannah Okwengu and Jamila Mohamed expressed concern and disappointment at the slow pace of mediation efforts that were initiated by the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights Commission (KNCHR). The parties had failed to reach a consensus even after the intervention of religious leaders, they observed.
Siaya Senator James Orengo said the union had prepared a complete structural legal framework and its representatives were willing to execute the necessary documentary commitments to end the crisis.
“We have absolute trust and faith in the government,” he said. Meanwhile, there was a sigh of relief at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret after some doctors who have been on strike started trickling back to work following President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive.
Hospital chief executive officer Dr Wilson Aruasa asked the remaining medics to follow suit by resuming duties with immediate effect to save patients from more sufferings.
Speaking to the press in his office, Aruasa exuded confidence that all key operations in the hospital will resume to normal in the course of the week going by positive response of the doctors.
The post Court issues ultimatum to medics, State appeared first on Mediamax Network Limited.