The Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) has termed the article dubbed ‘Doctors con game’ a fundamental error of fact.
Speaking at a press conference today, KMPDU Secretary-General Davji Bhimji Atellah indicated that the piece by a local daily is a witch-hunt for doctors noting there is no law in Kenya today that bars any civil servant from engaging in private enterprise.
“Doctors are not the only civil servants who engage in private enterprise. In fact. There is no law in Kenya today that bars any civil servant from engaging in private enterprise. Perhaps Oketch would have done well to familiarise herself with the report entitled, The Public Service Structure and Remuneration Commission,” he said.
Bhimji noted that the writer ought to know that it is not a crime in Kenya for civil servants to run a business.
“Trying to selectively criminalise it for the doctors must be one of the most inhuman and calculated attempts to kill a dog by first giving it a bad name. The doctors have been branded as rabid dogs by this in this story and a case made for their bludgeoning to death without being heard,” he said.
The article revealed widespread neglect of duty by specialist doctors across the country, leaving poor patients to die of largely treatable illnesses.
“We followed close to 15 specialist doctors attached to various public health facilities and spoke to hospital administrators, county bosses, medical interns, subordinate staff in hospitals and the union. We mapped the clinic days of specialists attached to public referral hospitals and arrived at their clinics early, waited until the doctors clocked in – for those who showed up and stayed on until they clocked out,” the article read.
However, Bhimji highlighted the Union has been agitating to have the Government commit to a Collective Bargain Agreement, CBA for the cycle 2021 -2025.
“It is instructive to note that State Agencies including the Salaries & Remuneration Commission. SRC have studiously blocked any attempts for a CBA to be concluded. Could it be that the media house is working on behalf of other forces hellbent on frustrating the quest of doctors for better terms of service by creating a perfect alibi that doctors do not work anyway?” he said.