Kenyan doctors working in public hospitals have rejected a government offer aimed at ending a weeks-long strike that has hampered health services.
The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) went on strike on 14 March over the non-payment of salary arrears, delays by the government to deploy medical interns and other grievances.
Late on Tuesday, the government asked the doctors to end their strike, saying the salary arrears have been paid and that trainee doctors would be hired from Thursday this week.
“We decline these proposals in total,” KMPDU chairman Abidan Mwachi responded on social media platform X.
He said the government’s offer does not “honour” a collective bargaining agreement that was signed in 2017, when a separate doctors’ strike lasted for three months.