Kenya's Public Hospital Doctors Resume Work After Signing Historic CBA

Striking Kenyan doctors returned to work after an agreement with the government to address poor remuneration and working conditions. A court had given the parties 48 hours to resolve the dispute, which left patients without healthcare. Health Minister Susan Nakhumicha praised the doctors' negotiating skills. The end of the strike brings relief to Kenyans reliant on public hospitals, which faced staffing shortages and relied on temporary doctors. The strike follows a 100-day work stoppage in 2017 over similar issues.

Kenya's public hospital doctors union on Wednesday signed a return to work agreement with the government, ending a national strike that began in mid-March and had left patients in limbo.

Davji Atellah, the union secretary general, said the doctors agreed to trust the government to implement an agreement to ensure the labor issues that caused the strike, including poor remuneration and working conditions, are resolved.

A labour court on Tuesday had given doctors and the government 48 hours to sign a return to work agreement, failure to which the matter would be determined by the court.

Kenya's Health Minister Susan Nakhumicha said the doctors had proved to be better negotiators than the government side, adding that the doctors had put up “quite a fight.” The end of the strike comes as a relief to millions of Kenyans seeking health services from public hospitals that had been crippled by the strike.

Some hospitals had decided to hire temporary doctors for emergency services.

In 2017, doctors at Kenya's public hospitals held a 100-day strike — the longest ever held in the country — to demand better wages and for the government to restore the country's dilapidated public health facilities.

Kenya is currently dealing with the devastating effects of flooding that has affected 235,000 people since mid-March when the rainy season started.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)