Union in bid to stop sacking of Kemsa staff

Doctors union has moved to court to stop the planned takeover of Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (Kemsa) by members of Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) and National Youth Service (NYS).

In an urgent application, Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) says the move to unilaterally sack employees of the agency and deploying KDF and NYS members in their place is unfair and amounts to unjust termination of employment.

Through lawyer Henry Kurauka, the union said the government has threatened to conduct mass sacking at Kemsa, who are its members and enlist KDF and NYS to take over the operations and the agency.

Mr Kurauku said Kemsa has about 900 employees and the government’s action is illegal unreasonable. The petition by KMPDU says the Ministry of Health was not consulted and did not approve the redundancy, hence the decision is contrary to the due process of law and the terms of employment.

He said the government has breached the provisions of Article 241 (2) (a) and (b), by enlisting KDF, which provides that persons enlisted are responsible for the defence and protection of the sovereignty and territory. The union said Kemsa is not in a state of emergency or disaster.

“The said actions of the respondents have infringed and are likely to infringe the rights of the 1st respondents and members of the petitioner who work there,” he said.

The employees received emails from the chief executive officer requiring them to attend a virtual staff meeting on November 4. The meeting was chaired by board chair Mary Mwadime, and the employees later told that Kemsa had run out of funds and had procurement issues.

She then issued a notice of general redundancy to the staff and directed non-core members to proceed on 30 days leave or work from home to allow restructuring. The statement further said core staff were retained on a temporary basis for one month.

The union said there were no established criteria to determine the core and non-core members. Further, the union says medical doctors and pharmacists will suffer great prejudice, loss and damage unless the plans are stopped.

They want the court to restrain the government from declaring redundancies or terminating the services of Kemsa employees and enlisting KD and NYS as employees of the agency.

Dr Davji Atellah, the secretary general KMPDU says there was no stakeholders or public participation and competitive recruitment for the government to enlist KDF and NYS.