By Patricia Mollyne Mataga
President William Ruto’s appeal to doctors to accept what the government is offering them and return to work continues to elicit mixed reactions.
The President on Sunday said the government is only able to pay medical interns Ksh70,000, against the Ksh206,000 that is contained in the now-contentious 2017 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
In addition, the Head of State said it was time the country lived within its means.
Doctors have since rejected the President’s plea, insisting that what is contained in the CBA is fair for the medical interns.
Wading into the matter, Saboti Member of Parliament Caleb Amisi said it was ironic the President was talking about living within the means yet his close allies were doing the opposite.
According to Amisi, Ruto should first ensure the same practice is adhered to by Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries before escalating the matter to doctors who are struggling to make ends meet.
The ODM legislator claimed some CSs, and PSs were living large, barely a year after they were appointed to the new roles.
“Mr. President Sir, nurses and doctors, and the rest of Kenyans have been struggling to live within their means, what should bother you now are your CSs and PSs living within their means?” Amiis said.
“Some were ‘chokoras’ the other day but now they wear watches worth ksh5m. You have not added designer clothes, houses, kids’ holidays and weddings, and heavy donations in harambees. Are we drawing from the same consolidated fund? Kenya needs a renaissance!” he added.
Members of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentist Union (KMPDU) have been on strike for over three weeks.
They are demanding among others deployment of medical interns and full implementation of the 2017 CBA.
Clinical officers last week joined the strike, also demanding the implementation of the CBA.
The government has maintained that the monetary aspect of the CBA cannot be implemented once, but it will need time.
It is a stand that the President insisted on, pointing out that his administration was focused on moving away from the past practice of borrowing to pay loans.
“We are spending KSh1.1 trillion of the KSh2.2 trillion revenue we collect every year to pay salaries and allowances. This is way above what we should be spending on salaries,” Ruto said during a service at AIC Fellowship in Eldoret.
“As a nation, we must agree that we must live within our means. We cannot continue to spend the money we do not have,” he added.