Looming crisis as clinical officers set to join ongoing doctors' strike

The Kenya Union of Clinical Officers issued a seven-day strike notice accusing the national and county governments of failing to keep their end of the bargain.

This comes on a day that Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakumincha said they are addressing issues raised by doctors including posting of interns as they explore ways to bring the doctors’ strike to an end. 

The CS says they are already posting clinical officer interns and will be doing the same for other cadres in the medical profession. 

The doctors who have boycotted work for 12 days say they will stage demonstrations in various major towns from Tuesday to Thursday.

"We have issued a strike notice and we shall start on Monday, the unfortunate thing is that we have given the government time, we have followed the law, we went to the ministry of labour, we went to court and they did not even come to court."Peterson Wachira, Chair of KUCO, stated. 

According to the Health Cabinet Secretary, some of the issues raised by the striking doctors such as posting of medical officers as well as the interns is already underway. 

 "We began posting of medical officers and interns and on my way here I saw that there were several queues in the ministry of health, the clinical officers interns are picking letters and we are going to ensure that hii kelele ya interns tumemaliza," Susan Nakhumicha, Health CS said. 

"And we want to thank those medical officers who are still at work and we shall make sure tumemaliza hii mambo, hii shida haikuanza na Nakhumicha."