Government Spokesperson Isaac Mwaura has criticized medical doctors for their ongoing nationwide strike, describing their demands as unreasonable.
Speaking to the press on Tuesday, Mwaura characterized the requests made by the medical practitioners as ill-intentioned, alleging that they are aimed at undermining the Universal Health Care pilot project and the Social Health Act.
He argued that the terms outlined in the 2017 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), particularly the demand for medical interns to receive a monthly stipend of Ksh.200,000, are unrealistic.
Mwaura pointed to the country’s heavy wage bill and existing debt as factors complicating the fulfillment of such demands.
Mwaura rescinded the terms contained in the CBA claiming that the government had been coerced to agree to the terms at the time through similar strikes thus it was not signed in goodwill.
“The government is surprised that the doctors continue to strike and the industrial strike is unprotected and illegal because we know very well that there is no way you can say that an intern should be paid Ksh.200,000 under a CBA signed under duress,” said Mwaura.
The Government Spokesperson went on to refer to the doctors as selfish in their demands, as he compared them to other professionals in the country whose interns he claimed earn between Ksh.15,000 and 25,000.
This, he added, is despite the fact that most doctors also run and manage their own personal clinics on the side illegally.
“We only have other professions like the lawyers that are paid Ksh.15,000 on internship…the public service internship programme pays all the other professions Ksh.25,000. There is no way that you can say that this can only apply to doctors, they are already,” Mwaura said.
“These are the same people who are also practising privately with no practising allowances, they are running their own clinics that are unregulated…it is not like before, we have many doctors who are not employed. It is unfair to say that people should not get their internship letters when they have been posted to them.”
He added: “These are people just trying to sabotage the Social Health Act because it requires that you don’t practice privately while you are working publicly because that is two salaries.”
The Spokesperson therefore maintained that the country could not afford to agree to the medics’ terms and therefore they should return to work as a show of ethics in their profession.
“These people are telling us to pay USD1500 when they know we cannot afford such kind of money so we are calling them to resume work,” he stated.
“Doctors in Kenya are some of the most paid the world over and are making a kill out of people’s misery and we need to tell them that it is not a question of being compensated but a question of service when you are in a medical profession.”