Residents of Homa Bay county have been advised to seek medication elsewhere after medical doctors issued threats to down tools over delayed salaries.
Downing tools by the medics will interfere with services at public health facilities across the county.
On Friday, the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union announced that its members in Homa Bay will go on strike starting Saturday.
KMPDU chairman in Nyanza region Onyango Ndong’a and the union’s Liaison Officer in Homa Bay Ochieng’ Otana announced that their last working day would be Friday at 12.59 PM.
The doctors have expressed various grievances including salary delay, failure to remit their statutory deductions, lack of promotion and removal of their two colleagues from the payroll.
The medics are also agitating against shortage of doctors in the county. They said the ratio between doctors and residents in Homa Bay is huge and is not commensurate to the World Health Organization standards.
Homa Bay has 65 doctors attending to over 1.1 million people.
Ndong’a said they are starting an indefinite strike until the Homa Bay government addresses their plight.
“The strike we’re going to start tomorrow will continue until Homa Bay government sorts out the issues. We had notified them about the strike but they haven’t responded,” Ndong’a said.
Speaking to journalists in Homa Bay town, Ndong’a said some of their members had worked for many years without being promoted from their job groups.
The medics want their colleagues who have worked for over eight years in the same job group, promoted.
These are some of the issues we want addressed, he said.
Ndong’a asked residents seeking health services in public facilities to look for alternatives.
“The deadline for the notice we issued has elapsed. That is why we are downing our tools,” he added.
Otana decried late payment of salaries saying some of their members had not received their December pay.
“The salaries of December were paid from January 9, but some of us have not received their salaries to date,” Otana said.
He said they had no option other than downing their tools.
This comes at a time when other health workers including nurses, clinical officers, and laboratory technologists had also issued a notice to down their tools on Monday.
But Health Chief Officer Kevin Osuri said they are engaging the medics in talks to avert the strike.
“We had received the notice but we’re trying to talk to avoid the looming strike as we look for money to pay them,” Osuri said.
