Listen to This Article Enhance your reading experience by listening to this article.

Health services across the country are set to be paralyzed in the coming weeks if a notice by the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists, and Dentists Union (KMPDU) is anything to go by.

In a statement on X on Saturday, December 14, 2024, KMPDU announced that doctors would down tools at midnight on December 22, 2024, if the government failed to address their grievances by then.

“Court orders ignored. Agreements violated. Respect lost. STRIKE begins at midnight, Dec 22, 2024. No more empty talks. No more broken promises. We demand action now!” KMPDU declared.

The planned doctors’ strike stems from unfulfilled pledges by the government.

Doctors initially went on strike on March 14, 2024, demanding the implementation of a 2017 labour agreement that promised higher salaries, better working conditions, and the recruitment of additional doctors.

The strike also sought to address broader systemic issues, including salary arrears, understaffing due to the insufficient hiring of trainee doctors (with medical interns making up 27% of the workforce in public hospitals), the lack of comprehensive health insurance for doctors and their dependents, and the chronic underfunding and understaffing of the health sector.

The government reached a deal with KMPDU on May 8, 2024, to end the 56-day strike, promising to resolve the salary disputes within 60 days.

However, KMPDU grew increasingly frustrated as the government failed to honour its commitments under the agreement.

On November 30, 2024, KMPDU convened a Special Delegates Conference with over 600 doctors to ratify industrial action and instructed the National Advisory Council to issue a strike notice to both national and county governments on December 2, 2024.

The conference, KMPDU’s highest decision-making organ, unanimously endorsed a nationwide doctors’ strike to address unresolved issues, including the internship deadlock, collective bargaining agreement (CBA) arrears, and the mental health crisis among doctors.

Following the conference, doctors issued a 21-day strike notice, set to commence on December 22, 2024.

The planned national doctors’ strike is to demand the implementation of the Return To Work Formula (RTWF) signed on May 8 2024, the immediate release of Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) arrears, and the payment of interns as per the agreement.