Nairobi, Kenya \u2014\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nKenyan doctors held new demonstrations Tuesday in their push for better pay and working conditions.<\/p>\n
The doctors are demanding a commitment from the government to fulfill collective bargaining agreements signed in 2017, but President William Ruto says the country has no money to pay the doctors and asked them to return to work.<\/p>\n
Thousands of striking doctors and medical trainees chanted, \u201cThe doctors united, shall never be defeated,\u201d as they protested outside the Kenyan Parliament.<\/p>\n
Led by officials of Kenya\u2019s main health care professionals union, the doctors want the government to honor the agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government has not implemented critical components of this collective bargaining agreement and instead, they have begun to violate it outrightly.” said Davji Atellah, secretary-general of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union.<\/p>\n
“Despite the inflation, despite the challenges [and] changes on all the other civil servants and public servants, doctors and other health workers have remained without it being considered,’ Atellah said. “Instead, we realized that the new doctor interns that are being posted, their salaries were reduced by 91%.\u201d<\/p>\n
President William Ruto has asked the doctors to call off the strike and go back to work, saying the government is struggling with a huge wage bill and cannot afford to review their salaries.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am telling our friends, the doctors, that we mind about them. We value the service they give to our nation. But we have to live within our means,\u201d Ruto said.<\/p>\n
Opposition lawmakers who joined the striking doctors Tuesday accuse the president of using the wage bill as an excuse to deny doctors their due pay at a time when there is exorbitant spending in government.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe doctors must not be paid yesterday, they must not be paid tomorrow, but they must be paid today,” said Paul Ongili, also known as \u201cBabu Owino,\u201d an opposition member of parliament. “Ruto took loans, and Ruto is collecting taxes. And those taxes must be used to pay these doctors. Ruto is vicariously liable for all the deaths occurring in the hospitals, for all the deaths occurring in this country, because he has refused to pay the doctors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another opposition member, Otiende Amollo, said there was support for the strike.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to reassure you that we stand with you, and we stand with your right under the constitution to peacefully demonstrate. Nobody has the authority to outlaw a peaceful demonstration by doctors,\u201d Amollo said.<\/p>\n
Irene Kenyatta, a final year medical student at the University of Nairobi, was among those who joined the doctors in the demonstrations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m fighting for my future. I went to school to have a bright future. It can\u2019t be the moment that I\u2019m going to finish school you are telling me that I can\u2019t have the bright future after all,” she said. “I have invested a lot. If I want a bright future, I have to get the bright future, even if it means coming to the streets to fight for my rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2017 Kenyan doctors’ strike that lasted 100 days is the longest in the country\u2019s history. <\/p>\n
Implementation of the collective bargaining agreement that ended that strike is the cause of the current strike, now in its fourth week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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