By Peter Ochieng
Doctors have been told they are on their own, if they continue maintaining their hardline stand.
Government spokesman Isaac Mwaura says the government will henceforth, not engage doctors until they suspend their ongoing strike. The medics have been on strike for a month.
Mwaura insisted the government is ready to pay intern doctors Sh70,000, instead of the Sh206,000 they are demanding terming it unsustainable.
According to the former Senator, it is unfair to pay intern doctors Sh206,000 every month whereas other interns in the Public Service Commission (PSC) earn Sh25,000.
“One of the things that the government cannot back down on is the issue of paying interns Sh206,000, it is unsustainable, there is no profession that is more important than another.”
“Lawyers who also sit five or six years in class are paid only Sh15,000 during pupillage. You are paid Sh70,000, three times more than the others who have also gone to school and have the same grade as you.”
Mwaura said he cannot force the doctors to go back to work, only insisting that it is inhumane to let their fellow Kenyans die because of the money.
“I will leave it to their conscience because if they want their fellow Kenyans to die because they want to get more money is quite inhumane.”
However, Azimio leader Raila Odinga speaking on the issue of the doctors strike this week, sided with the medics, urging the government to pay intern doctors Sh206,000.
Observers however see his stand as double speak, owing to the fact that some governors in his ODM stronghold, a case of Kisumu County have either threatened to sack striking doctors or not pay their remuneration.
Doctors are pushing for implementation of the 2017 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), and posting of intern doctors among other demands.
The CBA outlines that the lowest paid doctor, that is to say an intern, should take home Sh212,000 plus allowances every month, while the highest paid consultant is guaranteed a Sh814,000 pay.
President William Ruto, adding his voice on the matter said the country’s wage bill cannot allow his administration to meet doctors demands, at the moment.
His sentiments have been reiterated by Head of Public Service Felix Koskei, who holds that the country is running under a very tight budget.
Koskei urged the striking doctors to accept what the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has offered them.
“The government has got no money, there is no money that we can pay Sh206,000 per intern. Let them earn Sh70,000 and we are urging them that that is what they should take,” the head of the public service said.