The government has given striking doctors until Tuesday to conclude their discussions and give a way forward to the ongoing industrial action.
Head of Public Service Felix Koskei who is steering the 'Whole of Nation Approach Committee' said negotiations they have been having have already achieved 96 per cent of the desired outcome.
Speaking at the KICC Monday evening, Koskei said the government side had agreed to postpone the signing odf darft return-to-work formula to Tuesday after the wait for doctors union officials to arrive went into the night.
“Since it’s becoming night, we need to give them some more time for them to conclude the discussion with their membership so that tomorrow, once they are ready, we convene here and sign the return-to-work formula,” Koskei said.
The doctors have now been on strike for 40 days since March 14, 2024, paralysing service provision across all public health facilities.
The medics under the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU) are pushing for full implementation their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) signed back in 2017 after a record 100-day strike.
Koskei said all the issues that concerned the national and county governments were resolved during a meetimg held on Sunday except one.
“The issue of payment of interns and we all agreed and we initialed the draft document and we agreed that the union leadership goes back to report to their council and their membership so that they can ratify for us to sign,” he said.
The development comes after both sides ceded ground on contentious issues and softened their hardline stances which had threatened to stall talks that started on March 21, 2024.
The latest near consensus follows intense four days of meetings that ran well into the night as parties drafted a return-to-work formula aimed at ending the stalemate and save the country’s health system from startling to a halt.
A meeting at Harambee House Sunday night at the office of the Head of Public Service went on past midnight with KMPDU and the government ironing out contentious issues in the return-to-work document.
It was attende by the Council of Governors, the National Government, and key representatives of the KMPDU.
On Monday, KMPDU was largely expected to come to the meeting with a conclusive response after consulting their council in the morning on agreements made thus far.
The council was to give the green light for the union to sign the draft return-to-work formula in the afternoon but this was not to be.
Koskei divulged that they were informed that KMPDU needed to go through a number of bodies for the draft return-to-work formula to be ratified before the union could return to the tablefor signing.
"There still in the meeting and since it's becoming night, we have decided to give them some mlore time."