Ombudsman, Cotu blame govt for health workers' strike

Chairperson of the Commission on Administrative Justice Otiende Amollo (R) and vice chairperson Regina Mwatha during a press conference at their offices in Nairobi on December 16, 2013. PHOTO | EVANS HABIL  NATION MEDIA GROUP

In Summary

• The Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu) has also blamed the national government for the strike that started last week
• The doctors and nurses are protesting devolution of health services, which would have their salaries managed by the governors

By LUCAS BARASA
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The Ombudsman has criticized the national government for transferring all the health services to the counties resulting in the ongoing doctors and nurses’ strike.

The Commission on Administrative Justice (CAJ) chairperson Otiende Amollo said Schedule IV of the constitution only requires primary health care and county health facilities formally run by municipal and county councils to be under the devolved units

“Health policy and national referral hospitals belong to national government. The constitution does not envisage devolution of all health services. It is a policy decision to be taken by the national government,” Mr Amollo said.

To address the health workers' demands, Mr Amollo said, the national government should gazette all provincial and district hospitals as national health facilities to resolve the strike.

Speaking when he officiated the release of a report on performance of public servants in counties, Mr Amollo who was accompanied by CAJ vice-chairperson Regina Mwatha and commissioner Saadia Mohamed however appealed to doctors and nurses to resume work as their grievances were addressed.

“It is not the people of Kenya who have created the strike. The court has also issued an order. We urge the health workers to resume work as they committed to save lives. They should return to work as the matter is being handled,” Mr Amollo said in Nairobi. (READ: Court extends order stopping health workers' strike)

The Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu) has also blamed the national government for the strike that started last week, causing much suffering.

Cotu secretary general Francis Atwoli said at the weekend the government should be held to account for the continued suffering of thousands of Kenyans that remain unattended to in various hospitals and health centres across the country.

The doctors and nurses want to reverse the national government’s decision to transfer their salaries and emoluments to counties.

He regretted that despite the “enormous machinery and means” at government’s disposal to end the strike, “those responsible remain behind closed doors with their families and have instead resorted to using our courts to intimidate our health workers”.

'SWALLOW HIS PRIDE'

He said it is the government that gave recognition and registration to the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union as well as the Kenya Union of Nurses, the same unions that called for the strike.

Mr Atwoli said the two unions have expressed their readiness and willingness to engage government on a return-to-work formula instead of the declaration of the strike illegal.

In a statement, Mr Atwoli said Health Cabinet Secretary James Macharia “should swallow his pride, accept his mistakes and sit down on the table with the striking medics other than pretend as if the two unions do not exist.”

“Failure by government to immediately resolve the impasse will force the Central Organisation of Trade Unions, COTU (K) as a member of the International Labour Organisations (ILO) Governing Body to formally write to the ILO as a United Nations (UN) Agency and Kenya will be a subject of Sanctions as a country that is notorious in applying unfair Labour Practices,” Mr Atwoli warned.

The doctors and nurses are protesting devolution of health services, which would have their salaries managed by the governors.

They are blaming the government for failing to anchor devolution of health services in the law.

“The law requires that there be legislation to guide devolution in a proper manner; we are currently using laws that are so outdated,” the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union secretary-general Dr Sultani Matendechere said.

The union said that unless the government reversed the transfer of salaries and emoluments to the counties, it should prepare for a historic industrial unrest that it will live to remember