Atellah further announced that medical practitioners, both in the public and the private sector, will gather at the Safari Park Hotel on November 30, 2024, to declare a nationwide strike.
The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) has ordered all medical interns countrywide not to report to work, with immediate effect. At the same time, the union has issued a strike notice set for December this year.
KMPDU Secretary General Dr. Davji Atellah, while addressing the press on Wednesday, November 27, called on all medical interns to stay home. This comes hours after Atellah expressed his sadness while announcing that another medical intern died by suicide on Tuesday, November 26.
“After careful deliberations by the branch leaders and the Union in entirety we are asking all the medical interns across the country in all the facilities to stay at home immediately.
“We will not afford to see any more deaths out of desperation, despair, and disillusionment that are caused by hard working conditions. You must all stay at home as we try to discuss these matters with the government,” he directed.
Doctors on strike outside Parliament Buildings and Bunge Tower on April 30, 2024. /MARVIN CHEGE.VIRAL TEA KE
Atellah further announced that medical practitioners, both in the public and the private sector, will gather at the Safari Park Hotel on November 30, 2024, to declare a nationwide strike.
“We know it will be a sad situation at that time but the government is entirely responsible because they are failing to honour agreements and they are failing to honour court orders,” he added.
Atellah lamented that the interns have gone without pay for the past four months resulting in financial woes that have pushed some of them to the brink. He went on to attribute the financial issues to the loss of two intern doctors, the latest being Dr Francis Njeru, a medical intern (pharmacist) at Thika level 5 hospital
Four others, he said, attempted to take their lives but were rescued and hospitalised. “How many more doctor interns must die for this government to keep its promises?” he posed.
The union boss recapped that on May 8, doctors called off their 56-day strike after signing a return-to-work formula with the government but seven months down the line, the government was yet to honour the commitment to pay salaries per the scales contained in the agreement and endorsed by court.
According to Atellah, the government is to blame for the loss of the two medical interns who died by suicide as it has failed to honour its promise to pay them.
Earlier, the Internship Liaison Committee, a union of intern doctors, had threatened to stage a nationwide strike in protest of Njuki’s death. In a letter dated November 26, signed by its chairman Muinde Nthusi and Secretary-General Elisha Harry Otieno, the interns demanded the government pay them and improve working conditions.
“This devastating incident is not an isolated case; it starkly highlights the urgent need for the Ministry of Health and the government to confront the negligence and inconsiderate treatment of doctor individuals who constitute a significant portion of the healthcare workforce in public facilities,” the intern doctors demanded.
Njeru was reported to have passed on after working for only four months. He was subjected to working shifts of over 36 hours without pay.
This comes months after Dr Desree Moraa Obwogi, an intern doctor, tragically died by suicide on Sunday, September 22, with Atellah revealing two days later that she was working under treacherous conditions that posed a major threat to her safety.
The late Dr. Desree Moraa Obwogi was a medical intern at the Gatundu County Referral Hospital, Kiambu County. /FILE
