Kenyan doctors are on strike to stop wage slavery, exploitation

At least 4,000 doctors are employed in Kenya’s public healthcare sector. Almost all of them went on strike on March 14 demanding the implementation of a labour agreement signed with the government in 2017.

Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs) are realised under the unlimited labour rights enshrined under Article 41 of the Constitution and the Employment and Labour Laws of Kenya.

The agreement promised higher salaries, better working conditions and the recruitment of doctors.

At present, the government is adamant to fulfill and honour the agreement, which was signed by the previous government administration as approved by the labour management institutions, Salaries and Remuneration Commission, Public Service Commission, Ministry of Finance and National Treasury, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labour, and the Employment and Labour Relations court.

The agreement signed is between the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union, the national government and the country’s 47 county governments.

It was to be implemented fully and immediately from July 1, 2017, but it was not.

The government and the management of Kenyatta National Hospital went to the employment and labour relations court to stop the strike on the lapse of the notice period.

The court directed that employers and doctors agree on the minimum number of doctors, dentists, pharmacists and specialist doctors required to cover public health facilities and provide emergency care.

A three-judge High Court judgement, petition 28 of 2016, was issued on this matter on July 30, 2021, and there has been no compliance from the government.

Kenya does not have healthcare facility staffing norms and standards guidelines; anything goes as per management observations, desires and wishes on which staff, cadre or specialisation are to be on-boarded in health service delivery.

Under the Abuja Declaration of 2001, signed in Nigeria, African countries committed to allocating 15 percent of their government budgets to health. Kenya’s funding to the health sector has consistently fallen short of this target.

Kenya has a large shortage of doctors. Current gross statistics show there are about 2.3 doctors for every 10,000 people as at 2021 while the WHO recommends a ratio of one doctor per 1,000 people.

Kenya workers and doctors continue to push for fair labour practices and collective bargaining as has always been guided by the Constitution, employment and labour laws, and ILO conventions.

As we mark 2024 Labour Day, it must go on record that dialogue on labour relations should always be deliberate, fruitful, intentional and progressively undertaken.

Kenya cannot afford to mismanage doctors’ affairs by legitimising the violation of collective bargaining agreements, promotion of wage slavery, labour abuse and exploitative labour practices.

The writer is the Deputy National Chairperson of the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU).