Nairobi News

Doctors and nurses in Kenya have separately issued a 21-day strike notice, demanding improved remuneration.

The doctors are demanding a 300 per cent pay increase while the nurses are demanding the signing and approval of a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), counties and national government.

The strike notice comes barely a day after the SRC released a new job structure for the country’s over 600,000 public servants.

However, the doctors have termed SRC’s job evaluation report as “nonsense” that does not give exact figures of what they should earn.

“A Kenyan is paid Sh70 per hour. They spend six years in undergraduate school, five for Masters and then we pay them Sh 40,000 per month. We are angry and we demand to be valued,” said Kenya Medical Practioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Board chair Samwel Oroko.

JOB GROUPS

The union Secretary General Ouma Oluga said: ” We have waited for two years for SRC to say how much a doctor should earn. They have come with guidelines and other nonsense with no figures. Now we are done waiting. We are downing our tools until we get our right.”

At the same time, the Kenya National Union of Nurses secretary general, Seth Panyako, has accused SRC, counties and national government of failing to honor an agreement despite the matter being consistently raised by the union.

While speaking during the union’s national governing council meeting at the Tom Mboya Labour College in Kisumu on Saturday, Mr Panyako also accused SRC chair Sarah Serem of “duplicating the newly advertised job groups from previous documents” saying the advertised job groups have been in existence.

“On December 5, services in all public hospitals will be paralysed should the government fail to heed to our demands. The salaries commission has misled the public. The CBA we agreed on was never signed,  concluded with proper financial allocation made,” said Mr Panyako