Doctors’ union officials one-month suspended jail sentence yesterday was postponed for five days. Employment and Labour Relations Court Justice Hellen Wasilwa had given them until yesterday to end their strike or be jailed for one month.
She said the extension will lapse on January 31, when the parties will appear in court for the Council of Governors to respond to the officials’ new application.
The union filed an application for the sentence to be suspended for an additional two weeks.
The CoG, however, opposed it, saying the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union bosses have not demonstrated what they have done since the orders suspending their sentence were issued.
But Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jnr pleaded for a review of the orders. The strike is in its 54th day.
“The extension is not for negotiations but with a view to calling off the strike,” Wasilwa said.
The medics have three demands before they call off the strike. They do not want Health CS Cleopa Mailu and PS Nicholas Muraguri to be part of the negotiation team. They say the two are frustrating talks.
They want the talks to be held in public. And a mediating team from the Kenya Medical Association, the Senate and the Kenya Human Rights Commission to be part of the process.
“For the past 53 days, after every meeting we have had with the government, they have been lying to Kenyans about the negotiations. If we held the talks in public, the citizens will be able to judge who is telling the truth,” KMPDU secretary general Ouma Oluga said.
“The courts are also part of the team frustrating the process. The more time we spend in court, the more time the strike will go on.”
The government is on record stating the CBA cannot be implemented as it is not registered in court. It also said that it does not have the money to meet the doctors’ demands.
“We have presented seven different proposals to the government on how the CBA can be implemented,” Oluga said.
“However no one wants to listen to us. All they present when we meet are solutions that only the government arrived at, which KMPDU was not part of.”