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Africa

Kenyan doctors stage mass protest in the streets as national strike enters second week

Demonstrators voiced grievances against Kenya's government, citing unfulfilled promises

Associated Press
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  • Hundreds of Kenyan doctors protested for better pay and working conditions, continuing a nationwide strike now in its second week.
  • Demonstrators voiced grievances against the government, citing unfulfilled promises, including a collective bargaining agreement from 2017.
  • Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union Secretary-General Dr. Davji Bhimji said the strike will continue until all demands are addressed.

Hundreds of Kenyan doctors protested in the streets Friday demanding better pay and working conditions in an ongoing nationwide strike that has entered its second week.

The doctors carried placards and chanted against the Kenyan government, saying it had failed to implement a raft of promises, including a collective bargaining agreement signed in 2017 after a 100-day strike during which people died from lack of care.

Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union Secretary-General Dr. Davji Bhimji said the strike will continue until all the demands are met.

DOCTORS IN KENYA ESCALATE STRIKE BY HALTING EMERGENCY SERVICES AT PUBLIC HOSPITALS

"We have nothing else to lose but the chains of poverty and distress that we’ve been having," he said.

Kenya doctor protest

Doctors and other medical staff take part in a protest on March 22, 2024, in downtown Nairobi, Kenya. Hundreds of Kenyan doctors protested in the streets Friday demanding better pay and working conditions in an ongoing nationwide strike that has entered its second week. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

The standoff has left thousands of Kenyans without much-needed public health services.

Health Minister Susan Nakhumicha on Wednesday said she had instructed two top referral hospitals to recruit doctors to replace those taking part in the national strike.

Bhimji said the hiring of new doctors to replace those on strike would not settle the underlying labor concerns that caused the strike.

KENYAN DOCTORS REPORT THAT PROTESTERS WERE SHOT WHILE RUNNING FROM POLICE OR ATTEMPTING TO SURRENDER

"I’m very sure those doctors cannot run those hospitals because those terms are quite exploitative and demeaning," he said.

The doctors on Thursday stopped providing emergency services at public hospitals as they escalated the strike despite a court order calling for talks between the union and the Health Ministry.

Kenya’s head of the Public Service, Felix Kosgei, met late Thursday with union officials and various ministries and said the government is willing to implement the collective bargaining agreement, but in phases due to financial constraints.