Kenyan leader in talks with striking doctors over salary standoff

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta is holding a crisis meeting with representatives of striking doctors on Wednesday in a bid to end their month-long industrial action, which has paralyzed health services across the country.

The meeting is being held in the coastal city of Mombasa, where Kenyatta is on a working visit. It is being attended by officials from the Salaries and Remunerations Commission and other senior government officials.

Secretary General of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union, Ouma Oluga, confirmed the talks but maintained that the strike would only be called off after "an agreeable implementation matrix for the collective bargaining agreement (CBA)" was offered.

Early last month, over 5,000 public sector doctors downed their tools demanding a 300 percent pay hike based on the disputed CBA signed three years ago with the government.

The doctors say the lowest paid doctor should earn 3,450 U.S. dollars per month while the highest 9,450 dollars.

The government last month offered a 500 dollar increase for the lowest paid doctors, which would raise their salaries to around 1,760 dollars but the union rejected it and walked out of talks.

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

The strike has paralyzed operations in public hospitals, leaving at least 20 patients dead so far.

They doctors also demand the hiring of more medics and the improvement of working conditions in hospitals.

They claim that they have been forced to work for long hours due to the doctor-to-patient ratio that they say currently stands at 1:16,000.

Under Kenya's constitution, health functions are the role of county governments but the union has argued that the transfer of the services to counties should be carried out in phases. Endit