Roundup: Kenyan health workers' strike set to worsen as more join in

The Ongoing strike by health workers in Kenyan public hospitals over their pay rises entered its fourth day on Thursday and is set to get worse next week after those working in private, mission and other public health facilities threatened to down their tools in solidarity.

The Secretary General of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU), Fredrick Ouma Oluga, said the government has up to Monday to resolve the issues raised by unions or they will shut down all the medical services.

"Given no solution by Monday, KMPDU will call for a 24-hour complete stoppage of all clinical services in all private hospitals, private clinics, and mission hospitals on Tuesday," Oluga said in the capital Nairobi.

More than 20 patients have died since the strike started on Monday.

The KMPDU accused the government of failing to show any good will in the negotiation process but instead threatening them with law suits.

Talks between the union and the government have failed more than thrice with the medical staff walking out in protest.

"We are not going to negotiate anymore. Talks have been called without proper communication and with intent of blackmailing the union. We have remained willing to engage the government in good faith to no avail," Oluga said.

"The government should know that we are not going back to work. The collective bargaining agreement must be implemented first," he warned.

The striking health workers are demanding the implementation of a 2013 deal with the government on salary rises.

Leaders of the KMPPDU and the Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN), which are organizing the strike, have been ordered to appear in court on Dec. 13 over the breach of a court order suspending the then proposed strike.

Specialist doctors in Kenya's largest referral hospital, the Kenyatta National Hospital, and lecturers in the Medical School of the University of Nairobi have joined the strike.

More than 250 medics, who work as consultants, suspended the emergency services they were offering in the Kenyatta National Hospital on Thursday.

However, the nurses' union KNUN, which is asking for a 25-40 percent salary increase, new allowances and harmonization of their grading scales, has been holding talks with the government since Wednesday to resolve the current crisis.

"The ministry has shown seriousness to negotiate with us and we are ready to talk," said KNUN Secretary General, Seth Panyako.

But KNUN chairman John Bii said county governors had refused to negotiate with them, forcing the union to write its unilateral collective bargaining agreement, which the union now wants the Council of Governors to sign.

"They did not want to negotiate with us and we felt the strike was the best way to force them to the table," Bii said.

Under Kenya's constitution, health functions are the role of county governments but the union is adamant that the transfer of power to county governments should be carried out in phases.

Since the strike, some lawmakers have argued that the perennial industrial strife by health workers was an indication that county governments had failed to manage the health sector.

The gruesome images of struggling or dying patients have received condemnation from Kenyans who are demanding that the president should handle the crisis with urgency. Endit