Looming health crisis as doctors vow to continue with planned strike next week

The country is facing a health crisis after the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) on Tuesday insisted that the planned December 7, 2020 strike is still on course.

This comes only a week after KMPDU held what was believed to be a promising meeting with the National Assembly Health Committee, but which now appears to have done little to save the country from an impending health crisis.

The doctors accused the government of failing to commit itself to fulfill its recommendations that would see them avert the strike.

“From the engagements we’ve had, there is now a tune that they want more time beyond the timelines that had been given by the Parliamentary Health Committee…that is why we’re saying there’s no more time because it’s about our lives, it’s about the soldiers who are on the frontline,” said KMPDU Acting Secretary General Dr. Chibanzi Mwachonda said during the Tuesday presser.

The union Chair Dr. Samuel Oroko, on his part, said, “I want to remind the government that the healthcare workers you’re trying to mistreat, the healthcare workers you’re not listening to, are the same ones who treat you when you go to the hospitals, are the same ones who take care of you in your various homes.”

“We know some governors have bought ventilators and created ICUs in their own bedrooms, Kenyans, I want to tell you that you’re on your own, the government doesn’t care for you anymore.”

KMPDU is on Wednesday however expected to meet the Ministry of Health as well as the National Assembly Health over the looming strike.