Kenyans are staring at an impending healthcare crisis across the country as medical workers threaten to down tools should the government fail to address their concerns, including issues at Kiambu County.
Under Health Unions Caucus, the medics have issued a seven-day ultimatum, warning to join their Kiambu County colleagues who have been on the streets for the last four months.
Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) Secretary General Davji Atellah argued the notice has been necessitated by the worsening health situation in Kiambu, with about 700 medical interns facing withdrawal from the county.
They slammed the county Governor, Kimani Wamatangi, for what they termed as inaction that has left the area residents enduring pain and suffering, travelling long distances while seeking healthcare services.
"Mr Wamatangi should not make life so difficult for everybody that people continue dying and suffering," said DR. Atellah, calling for the governor's resignation "if he is the problem."
He was speaking on Tuesday during a press briefing in Nairobi.
"If the Chief Executive Committee Member is the problem, the CEC should go. If the leaders who were elected are the problem, then they should go," he said.
This is as the Ministry of Health recalled 697 medical interns deployed in Kiambu, citing their inability to proceed with training owing to prolonged health workers’ strike.
They accused the county boss of plotting to "kill' unions after he stopped remitting union deductions last year, alongside incurring salary arrears that are now four months due.
They claimed that the caucus' letters to the county leadership to address the plights have landed on deaf ears, even as the healthcare staff continue to receive threats that they "must quit the union should they want to continue working in the country.
The chairperson of the Kenya National Union of Medical Laboratory Officers (KNUMLO), Nicholas Odipo observed that the move to halt union deductions is against Article 41 of the constitution.
"They have declined to reinstate our deductions of the union, and remittance of the other third-party deductions. The county has also refused to honour the absorption of clinical officers on contract,' he said.
"We are going to protect the rights of our members even if f it means we are going to suspend everything to pump sense to the leaders" he added.
Besides the health crisis in Kiambu, the lobby groups are demanding absorption of Universal Health Coverage workers by counties on permanent and pensionable basis, which has stalled for months since the directive was issued by the Ministry months ago.
At the same time, they want the Global Fund workers to be absorbed by the counties as directed the Ministry.
According to Dr Atellah, the counties refusal to effect the directive, on the basis that they (governors) don't believe that the Ministry will allocate funds for the process despite availability of the money in the current financial year, is lame.
He added: "All the money to counties comes from the national exchequer. There is no way they won't believe that this other one won't come when they expect money for anything else to come."
They also accused the Council of Governors of issuing directives to the Public Service Commission (PSC) to withdraw career guidelines for health workers, citing financial implications.
The medics said this undermines the PSC's mandate and hinders career progression.
At the same time, they raised concerns over the delayed salaries of county health workers, including those in Nairobi, which has not paid salaries for the last two months, while Marsabit, Isiolo, and Kiambu have not paid salaries for four months each.
"We are offering services we cannot afford yet we have been taxed heavily and when you remit at late stage it cannot help us," lamented George Gibore, General Secretary of Kenya Union of Clinical Officers (KUCO).
KUCO chair Peterson Wachira said, "We are also going to start with demonstrations, and if that is not honoured, we are going to have a joint national strike involving all the unions,"
Wachira called on the President and the bicameral parliament to recall the function of health from Kiambu County back to the national government and consider establishment of Health Service Commission to handle the docket.
"We have proposed a structure that can work very well with the devolution, while also ensuring that health workers are employed and their staffing is adequate, and also to ensure that they are motivated enough to ensure that their welfare is also looked after," said Wachira.
