Roundup: Kenya's health sector paralyzed as medics down tools over pay

Kenya's health sector was engulfed in crises on Monday as doctors and nurses commenced a nationwide strike over failure by the government to implement a 300 percent pay hike.

Senior leaders from Kenya's doctors and nurses union said the strike would continue until a collective bargaining agreement on a pay rise signed with the government in 2013 was fully implemented.

The striking doctors held a protest in the capital Nairobi to express their displeasure over delayed implementation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement deal, after talks to avert the industrial action collapsed Sunday evening as union representatives didn't show up.

Police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of striking health workers, who marched to the health ministry headquarters and then to the finance ministry's offices.

The 2013 bargaining agreement includes a 300 percent pay rise and a review of the medics' working conditions, job structures and criteria for promotions. It also seeks to address under-staffing of medical professionals in state hospitals.

Health Minister Cleopa Mailu termed the strike by more than 5,000 medics illegal and urged them to report to work as the government review their terms of service.

"There is deliberate effort within government to address the plight of health workers and the doors are open to kick start discussions on the weighty matters of salaries and remuneration," Mailu told reporters in Nairobi.

He said the government was willing to engage the union to resolve the issues raised.

Kenyan health workers had earlier given the government a 21-day ultimatum to implement the pay rise agreement or face industrial action.

The Secretary General of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU), Fredrick Oluga, said health workers would not report to duty until their demands for better pay and working conditions were met.

"We appeal to the authorities to speed up implementation of the collective bargaining agreement on pay rise and promotion for medical personnel. Improved working conditions are the only way to end paralysis in the health sector," said Oluga.

A Kenyan court last week declared the health workers strike illegal and appealed for dialogue between unions and state agencies to resolve the pay dispute.

However, doctors and nurses defied the court injunction and boycotted duty, paralyzing operations in public health facilities countrywide.

Local media reported that patients admitted in major public health facilities were unattended as the strike entered day one.

The health workers asked the public to prepare for the "longest strike ever".

The doctors had over the past few months been on an on-and-off strike notice, protesting the alleged failure of county governments to honor allowances, promotions and payments that should be awarded to them. Endit