Kenya's public hospital doctors sign agreement to end national strike after almost 2 months
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00:00 Now after 56 days of strikes that left millions of Kenyans struggling to access health care,
00:05 the government signed an agreement with a major doctors union, the Kenya Medical Practitioners,
00:12 Pharmacists and Dentists Union, KMPDU, represents more than 7,000 members who had stayed away
00:20 from work at public hospitals since mid-March as they called for better pay and conditions.
00:26 Olivia Beazle tells us more.
00:28 After nearly two months of strikes, Kenya's Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists
00:35 Union has signed a back to work agreement with the government.
00:39 A Labour court gave both sides 48 hours to reach an agreement and if not it said they
00:44 would impose a solution.
00:46 This will bring a huge sense of relief to millions of Kenyans across the country who
00:50 have been struggling to access health care services in recent months.
00:54 And although the KMPDU has gone back to work, other unions including Kenya's union of clinical
01:00 officers have not.
01:02 The clinical work is one that gives the direction in terms of how to address any condition or
01:07 how to take any intervention for any patient.
01:11 So today when we talk about the number of staff who have gone back by virtue of finalising
01:15 on this, they may be able to make an impact but it will not be good enough to actually
01:21 propel services or rather guarantee services for every Kenyan by virtue of the smaller
01:26 number that they have.
01:27 This isn't the first time that health care workers in Kenya have gone on strike.
01:31 Back in 2017 they went on strike for 100 days.
01:34 Eventually union leaders signed an agreement with the government which addressed a lot
01:38 of issues including a maximum number of working hours, promotions and of course pay.
01:43 But during these strikes that began in March, health care workers have been saying that
01:47 seven years after they were promised, these changes still haven't been registered or implemented.
01:52 They hope that after this strike that will soon change.