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Court to Wamatangi administration: Your doctors have a right to strike
Kiambu County Governor Kimani Wamatangi.
The Employment and Labour Relations Court has upheld Kiambu doctors' constitutional right to strike and dismissed attempts by the county leadership to force medics back to work.
Justice Stephen Radido not only rejected the county's application to stop the ongoing doctors' strike but delivered a stinging rebuke to the county leadership, questioning why Kiambu County finds itself "perennially involved in industrial tussles with its doctors unlike the majority of other counties."
In his judgment, Justice Radido made it clear that the court would not intervene in what he termed as a pattern of labour disputes that sets Kiambu apart from other counties that have managed to maintain better relationships with their medical personnel.
“It is not the duty of this court to hazard against as to why the county is perennially involved in industrial tussles with its doctors unlike the majority of the other counties. It is true that part of the resources used to fund devolved health functions are disbursed from the national government and if there are delays in the disbursement it would have affected nearly all of the 47 counties,” Justice Radido noted.
“There appears to be something amiss in the management of the health function in the county government of Kiambu. The management must address the concerns raised by the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacist & Dentist Union (KMPDU) in utmost good faith,” he highlighted.
According to Justice Radido, the management ought to deal with KMPDU and agree on the best way to solve their issues.
“The court cannot micromanage them in their relationship. The Ministry of Labour under the county labour officer Kiambu has offered the parties a table to use in negotiations, the parties must return to that table. Flowing from the above, the court declines to issue any of the orders pleaded in the motion. T
"The motion is dismissed with no order on cost because of the ongoing social partnership between the parties,” Justice Radido ruled.
The parties are to report progress on June this year, he further ordered.
But how did it get here?
As per the official court documents Kiambu doctor’s are concerned about persistent delays in salary disbursements, delayed promotion and denial of career progression opportunities, delays in Social Health Authority(SHA) remittances beyond the ninth of every month.
Kiambu doctors are also complaining of the introduction of an unclear ans 'chaotic' supervisory management structure with instances of certain doctors reporting to municipal managers, political bullying and intimidation of doctors publicly and privately.
In an official statement reacting to the ruling, KMPDU Central Branch representative Dr Bill Muriuki reiterated that their issues with the county government did not begin in May this year.
The issues at hand were formally reported as a trade dispute to the ministry of labour as early as October 2024.
"The ministry appointed a conciliator, who called three meetings to resolve the matter—each of which the county failed to attend without explanation,” Mr Muriuki said, while adding that for over seven months, doctors have made every attempt to seek dialogue, all of which were ignored by the county.
“The strike was therefore a lawful and necessary step, as allowed under the Labour Relations Act of 2007.
Doctors in Kiambu, represented by KMPDU, issued a 21-day strike notice on May 5, 2025, three times longer than the statutory requirement.
"Throughout this extended window for dialogue, the county government neither initiated talks nor engaged the Union,” Dr Muriuki went down memory lane.
“Instead, the county government waited until the eve of the strike to rush to court in an attempt to stop the action through legal maneuvering rather than meaningful engagement.”
Last week, while speaking in Nairobi over the matter, KMPDU SG Dr Davji Atellah said that what is happening to doctors in Kiambu may soon compel the Union to have a nationwide doctors’ strike.
