Kenya’s doctors threaten to join strike by nurses, citing increased workload in hospitals

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Doctors in Kenya on Tuesday threatened to join a walkout by nurses that is now in its sixth week, citing an increased workload in hospitals as they cope with the impact of the strike.

The nurses have been calling for the implementation of a collective bargaining agreement that was signed in 2017 following a six-month strike. The agreement remains unimplemented due to what the government has termed budgetary constraints.

Dr. Davji Bhimji Atellah, secretary-general of the doctors’ union, said on Tuesday that doctors were overburdened and “cannot do the nursing jobs.”

He said hospitals were already dealing with a shortage of doctors and that the healthcare system requires teamwork.

“We will not watch silently as the healthcare system we have dedicated our lives to serving is allowed to deteriorate. When one part of healthcare is compromised, we all suffer. And when we stand together, we protect our patients together,” he wrote in a post on X.

On Tuesday, hundreds of nurses marched to the Council of Governors’ office, a body established to bring the 47 county governments together. The governors and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission were due to meet on Tuesday to discuss remuneration.

Atellah said the doctors’ union had given the government seven days to resolve the issues raised by the nurses. If the issues were not solved, the doctors would issue a strike notice.

Seth Panyako, head of the nursing union, said on Monday that the government was not prioritizing healthcare during budgeting, leaving Kenyans to suffer in hospitals. He said the excuse that there was no budget to implement the 2017 agreement was unfair to nurses who work hard to provide healthcare services.

Ahmed Abdullahi, chair of the Council of Governors, last week urged nurses to call off their strike and give the government time for negotiations. He said the court had ruled that the ongoing strike was illegal and that individual county governments would take action against striking nurses.

James Murimi, a nurse who marched for five kilometers (3.1 miles) on Tuesday, said the return-to-work agreement was to improve the nurses’ uniform and nursing service allowances.

“Since then, these allowances have never been improved. And they have so far accumulated for nine years. So the COG, or the government of Kenya, or the National Republic of Kenya, owes us nine years’ worth of arrears,” he said.

The Senate on Tuesday discussed the closure of hospital dispensaries in some counties.

Nandi County’s Sen. Samson Cherargei said there had been a “surge in deaths” while blaming the Council of Governors and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission for the “national crisis.”