Specialist doctors in public hospitals have joined the three-week-old strike by their junior colleagues.
At least 100 of them, mostly at the Kenyatta National Hospital, said they will not report to work from Friday.
The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union closely followed the successful 2017 script when doctors went on strike for three months.
The 2016/2017 strike was started by junior doctors, who mostly ran the union, and were joined by consultants when the government remained adamant. After that, union members in private hospitals also went on strike for a few days.
Consultants are doctors who have completed advanced training in a specific area of medicine, such as oncology.
In 2017, the registrars also followed the consultants in avoiding clinical work. Registrars are doctors in training to become consultants.
On Thursday, KMPDU secretary general Davji Atellah gave a similar path to escalate their current strike, which started on March 14.
"As the strike enters day 22, we have to continue being on strike and are going to escalate it such that we are going to stop offering private services that were offered before by consultants and this will continue," he told journalists at KNH.
He added: "Next week we will see how to make sure that doctors also working in private hospitals see the need to protect the profession, it is not an individual war."
In the last strike, doctors in public facilities downed tools on December 5, 2016, demanding a 300 per cent pay increase.
The government rejected the demands and only budged when doctors employed in private hospitals joined the strike on February 15, 2017, to protest the arrest of seven union leaders. Medics in private hospitals protested for a few days and resumed work. But they skipped work every Thursday after that.
The strike ended on March 14, 2017, after signing a Return To Work Formula (RTWF) that increased doctors salaries three times. The doctors later signed the contentious Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Ministry of Health on June 30, and with county governments on July 6, 2017.
Yesterday, Atellah said they had advised interns not to pick their posting letters.
"We have asked all the interns that that letter is disgusting, it is contemptuous, it is a show of immorality of the government and injustice being perpetrated to the interns and as we say it is a basic principle that every element of doctors must be respected, therefore they will not pick those letters, we will wait until the government realises there is need to honour CBA," he said.
According to the CBA, the lowest-paid doctor (intern) earns about Sh212,000 inclusive of all allowances, every month. The highest-paid consultants walk home with about Sh814,000.
The CBA also outlines details on promotion schemes for doctors, including scholarships to study Masters degrees full-time, while on full salary.
However, the government has failed to implement some of these provisions terming them as selfish, expensive and discriminatory to other professional workers also employed by the State.
This week, the Health CS Susan Nakhumicha and the two principal secretaries in the ministry did not respond to media queries on the strike.
On Tuesday, Head of Public Service Felix Koskei said the government released Sh2.4 billion to facilitate the immediate deployment and posting of the 2023/24 cohort of medical student interns.
"With that spirit in mind, the leadership of the KMPDU is urged to comply with its obligations under the court's orders by immediately suspending the ongoing industrial action," Koskei said in a statement.
KMPDU chairperson Abi Mwachi said they were not ready to take the government offer, adding that the doctors in 2017 ended their strike based on promises which have never been met.
"The doctors of this country did nothing but believe in the promise of their government in 2017 where we ended a 100-day strike for the price of a promissory note. It is time to honour that promise. Respectfully," he said.
The Employment and Labour Relations Court stopped the strike on March 13 and ordered mediation.
But doctors have repeatedly rubbished the court orders.
Justice Byram Ongaya had issued the orders in response to a certificate of urgency filed by James Kounah Advocate and supported by an affidavit from Jane Akunda, both dated March 12, 2024.
The Kenyatta National Hospital had moved to court seeking to stop doctors working at the hospital from going on strike, after the lapse of the seven-day strike notice on March 13.
The Kenya Union of Clinical Officers joined the doctors strike on Monday and issued six demands to the government.
On Wednesday, the nurses issued a statement and said they will not join the strike.
Kenya National Union of Nurses secretary general Seth Panyako said the union would continue with alternative dispute resolution mechanism.