KMPDU Demands For Salaries, Threaten To Down Tools In One Week

By Maureen Murengeka

Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists Dentists Union (KMPDU) blames the government for delaying healthcare workers salaries. Confirming that over 40 counties and some of the healthcare workers have not received their salaries for two months now, giving a seven days strike notice Failler to payments

Addressing the media Dr Davji Atellah, KMPDU Secretary General, said that “Healthcare workers are suffering in the counties, they go to work without salaries and proper equipment.  It’s been ten years since devolution, yet no proper frameworks have been established to ensure health services function efficiently,” said Atellah.

The Secretary General decried the low employment rates among healthcare workers, saying less than 10 percent of all the healthcare workers who have graduated since 2010 have been employed in the public healthcare system.  

“Salary delays and failure to remit statutory deductions means the workers in the counties are facing a crisis with banks if they have loans, are unable to access services that require statutory deductions and are struggling with basic needs such as rent,” he said.

Atellah farther explains healthcare is the backbone of the economy, it very unfortunate that healthcare providers are not prioritised by the devolved units.

“There has been no recruitment of healthcare workers in the country, which means that those working in the county hospitals are overworked and cannot go on leave and have promotions,” he said. 

Atellah further said that, although Kenya is a signatory of the Abuja declaration that states healthcare should constitute 15 per cent of a country’s budget allocation; it is only at 4.4 per cent.

Meaning that the government has neglected human resources, by failing to equip facilities with modern infrastructure and drugs, leading to low service delivery.

He blamed the government for creating artificial excess healthcare workers, saying it’s a deliberate effort to push or sell them to the private sector, where they can be exploited for little pay.

“They’ve been saying we have a lot of doctors and nurses, with the current ratio 1doctor per 17,000 patients in which it would still take 50 years to reach the recommended WHO ratio of 1:1000,” he said.

Calling on the public to advocate for efficient service delivery, saying that, the government cannot be broke, regarding on the fact that the government has not stopped collecting taxes, the efficiency of the collection has actually increased by 8 per cent, meaning more money has been collected. The government’s priority now is aligned with the IMF and the world bank because they want to increase their ability to lend more money internationally.

“The government should consider healthcare not as a recurrent expenditure but as an investment. The cost of healthcare is too expensive, but it cannot be free, yet it is a right of every Kenyan. It is either the government pays for it or the public,” he said.

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