Azimio la umoja coalition leader Raila Odinga has finally spoken out on the ongoing doctors' strike, maintaining that medical interns must be paid what they deserve.
Speaking in Lavington, Nairobi, after an ODM National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on Thursday, Odinga urged the government and KMPDU to agree to allow medical services to resume.
He also mentioned that keeping medical interns' salary at Ksh.206,000, as established in the Collective Bargaining deal (CBA) inked in 2017, is one of the options for resolving the deadlock until a new deal is achieved.
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"For the last seven years, interns have been earning Ksh.206,000 monthly. These are actually the doctors running Level IV and many other public hospitals. There is no way an employer can reduce the salaries of employees mid-stream," said Mr. Odinga about the State's proposal to slash medical interns' pay to Ksh.70,000.
"We ask the government to reinstate the Ksh.206,000 pay for interns until the next CBA negotiations, which is around the corner, kicks in. In that next round of negotiations both parties should put their cases on the table for consideration."
He also raised the problem of tuition and salary for public medical professionals pursuing higher studies, accusing the Ministry of Health (MoH) of failing to cover the costs.
The Azimio leader expressed concern about hiring physicians on short-term contracts and emphasized that the state should address the issue immediately by implementing policies that encourage nationwide fair and respectable labor standards for doctors.
The Azimio la Umoja One Kenya head also argued for equitable compensation for physicians, citing the system's lack of standardization in payment structures.
He also asked counties that had terminated the contracts of physicians who joined the national strike to rethink and restore them.
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