Victory for trainee doctors: DP Kindiki and KMPDU sign agreement to call off national strike

Vice President Kithure Kindiki on Thursday evening oversaw the signing of an agreement between doctors and the Ministry of Health which will now see the cancellation of the national strike initially planned for December 22, 2024.

The agreement, which was also signed by the Council of Governors (CoG), will see intern doctors receive a salary of Ksh206,000, in line with the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) signed between government and doctors, pharmacists and dentists of Kenya. (KMPDU) in 2017.

The KMPDU, led by general secretary Dr Davji Atellah, also noted that it was agreed at the meeting that basic salary arrears would be paid.

Dr. Atellah, while issuing the strike notice on December 3, expressed frustration over what he described as negligence on the part of the government in promulgating the 2017 collective agreement.

“National and regional governments have totally ignored our agreements. This is an extraordinary time when promises and agreements are not honored and mean nothing, a time where a collective agreement that has been honored and respected for more than 7 years can be bastardized by a directive government”, he declared then.

He also denounced the government’s contempt for court decisions, in particular the judgment rendered on October 26, 2024, which validated the collective agreement on the remuneration of medical interns.

“Salaries of trainee doctors have been cut by 70%, an unforeseen situation in the history of workers in this country and around the world. It is in the context of these broken promises and the impunity granted to our interns by national and regional governments that the 10th special session of KMPDU delegates on November 30, 2024, we ratified the decision of the NAC to take industrial action,” Dr Atellah said.