Kenya Doctors Reject Offer As Strike Hits Second Month

NAIROBI, Jan 6, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 06th Jan, 2017 ) - Kenyan doctors on Friday rejected the government's offer of a 40 percent pay rise in the latest bid to end a month-long strike that has crippled public hospitals across the country.

Thousands of doctors in the country downed tools on December 5 to demand a 300 percent pay rise that they say was agreed in a 2013 collective bargaining agreement (CBA), and several rounds of negotiations have failed as the medics dig their heels in.

Nurses are also striking, although some returned to work in mid-December after reaching a separate deal with authorities.

Union officials on Wednesday met with President Uhuru Kenyatta who offered to raise minimum salaries from 140,244 shillings (1270 Euros, $1350) a month to 196,989 shillings.

"The union officials today presented that offer to the doctors for deliberations and they humbly rejected it," the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) wrote on its Twitter account.

The union said the offer failed to take into account other agreements mentioned in the CBA, from the need to better equip hospitals to funding research and addressing the security of doctors at work.