Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna has appealed to Governor Johnson Sakaja to embrace dialogue with striking doctors instead of threatening them.
The governor on Wednesday evening gave striking doctors in the county a 12-hour ultimatum to resume work or face the sack.Sakaja said those who would fail to report to work Thursday morning would be considered to have absconded duty and disciplinary action would be initiated forthwith.
But Sifuna said doctors went to the streets for a good cause and should be treated like the professionals they are.
“There’s no need to start threatening people, there is no need to start teargassing the likes of KMPDU secretary general. They are not used to such things,” Sifuna said.
On Wednesday, Sakaja emerged from a meeting with Nairobi City County Health Sector Leadership and announced that the doctors’ strike was illegal as pronounced by the courts.
Sakaja spoke in the presence of top officials of the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU) who also attended the meeting at City Hall.
In the meeting, he called on all striking county medics to report back to work latest Thursday morning to give room for dialogue as directed by the Labour court.
“I therefore direct that all doctors working for Nairobi City County Government to resume work in their respective duty stations within 12 hours, failing which disciplinary action will be commenced,” he said.
“I’m addressing not just the union, I’m addressing the individual doctors in Nairobi who have individual terms of service with the county government that we have hired you to offer a service to our people; everything you have requested for has been given. No issue with your employer needs a strike, go back to work,” he said.
Sakaja said the county government through the County Public Service Board had already initiated the process of absorbing intern doctors which was one of the grievances that pushed the doctors to take industrial action.
He revealed that a conciliatory meeting had been scheduled on Thursday by the Head of Public Service to try to find a common ground between the doctors and the county government.
Justice Byram Ongaya on Wednesday extended orders suspending the strike which started on March 14 and set April 3, 2024, for the recording of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the compromise that will be reached during Thursday’s meeting.
While speaking during a funeral in Nyeri which Sakaja also attended, Sifuna said dialogue was the best way forward to resolving the impasse as opposed to threats and intimidation.
“Hon Sakaja I want to appeal to you because I know you as a gentleman. Our brothers who are providing us with health services in Nairobi, there’s no need to threaten them,” he said.
“These are doctors who have been in school for six years, they have just come to help citizens. Call them and resolve the issues at hand instead of threatening them…that’s not the way to go”
Sifuna signed off on a lighter note with a piece of advice to KMPDU Secretary General Dr Devji Atellah during protests.
Atellah suffered head injuries after he was hit by a teargas canister on February 29 as he led a doctors’ strike on the streets of Nairobi.
“I called him and told him, don’t think ODM secretary general is crazy whenever you see him with a sufuria on the head. If you had one, the teargas would not have hit your head leading to your admission,” Sifuna said.
