We may sign deal with doctors tomorrow – Felix Koskei - video Dailymotion

The Star Kenya

The government has given striking doctors until Tuesday to conclude their discussions and give a way forward to the ongoing industrial action. https://rb.gy/boesag

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00:00We've come a long way in discussion.

00:20You remember from 21st March we had a meeting.

00:27On 27th March we had a meeting and the latest meeting that we had was yesterday where we

00:38had candid discussions and we largely agreed on almost all the issues except one, all the

00:45issues.

00:46In fact, the issues that were concerning the counties were cleared 100%.

00:52The issues that concerned national government were all cleared except one, the issue of

01:00payment of interns and we all agreed and even we initialed the draft document and we agreed

01:09that the union leadership goes back to report to their council and their membership so that

01:18they can ratify for us to come and sign the return to work agreement of which since morning

01:28every other time we have been updated that they have been having their meeting since

01:31nine o'clock because you know they have series or they have several organs to pass through

01:39in order for the strike to be called off or for the suspension by the court to be affirmed

01:45and therefore they are still now still in the meeting and we have decided that since

01:52it is becoming night we need to give them some more time for them to conclude the discussion

02:00with their membership so that tomorrow once they are ready we come here, convene here,

02:08sit down and initial or sign the return to work formula as agreed yesterday.

02:15All matters that the unions were asking that have to do with county governments have all

02:25been agreed and resolved and initialed and they are just going through their process

02:33of ratifying the same with their membership and once they are done we were expecting that

02:39they will be done by two unfortunately the meeting seems to be taking long but as we

02:47have all agreed that we will reconvene tomorrow for the final signing and we are looking forward

02:53to the strike being called off.

02:56In negotiations people cannot get everything they are looking for and as a government we

03:02have really bent backwards, we have made a lot of concessions out of 18 issues, we

03:09have got one issue, surely under whatever examination that is an A, if not an A+, it

03:15is an A+, it is 96%.

03:18We have really over achieved and I am really hopeful that tomorrow the union will do the

03:24rightful thing not for the interest of ourselves as government or doctors but for the interest

03:30of all Kenyans and I want to say that there are fears by the union that there have been

03:37so many attempts to do this return to work and then leave them or leave the process there.

03:45The court's ruling was very clear that we have to deal with perennial issues and therefore

03:52part of what we have agreed is how we will be engaged from the highest level, head of

03:57public service, council of governors, the ministry of health, ministry of labour, my ministry,

04:03that we will remain engaged and I want to send that message to the union that we are

04:07not doing this as a temporal issue, we are not doing this as a temporal issue, so we

04:11need good faith because we will remain engaged until we get to the bottom of this matter

04:17and resolve the perennial issues.

04:19We are almost at the tail end of this process so we are waiting for the affirmation but

04:24I want also to confirm that last week Wednesday I did appear before the Senate and the National

04:31Assembly and the question of Linda Mama came up, the claims that have been outstanding.

04:38I would like to confirm that on Friday the Ministry of Health did receive 4.3 billion

04:44from National Treasury and starting today we have started paying off claims that have

04:50already been reconciled and verified.

04:53So from today facilities that had provided services including Linda Mama should start

04:58receiving their claims from NHIF.

We may sign deal with doctors tomorrow – Felix Koskei

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