Striking Kenyan Doctors Protest Poor Salaries, Working Conditions

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Hundreds of hospital doctors joined a demonstration in the streets of the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Tuesday as a nationwide strike by medics neared its fourth week.

About a dozen riot police in pickup trucks were out to monitor the protest, which was not authorised by the authorities.

Members of the 7,000-strong Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union have been on strike since March 13 to demand better pay and working conditions, disrupting health care at the country’s 57 public hospitals.

Wearing white lab coats and blowing horns and whistles, the doctors chanted “solidarity forever” as they marched to the health ministry, where they blocked the entrance gates.

“We are more than willing to go back to the hospitals but the effort being put by the government is not enough to end the human suffering,” KMPDU deputy secretary general Dennis Miskellah said.

The union last week rejected an offer by the government that included paying arrears under a 2017 collective bargaining agreement, and hiring trainee doctors on permanent contracts.

Kenyan President William Ruto, who has embarked on a programme of cost-cutting measures since taking office in 2022, on Sunday ruled out any further concessions.

NAN