President William Ruto.
The government on Wednesday maintained a hardline stance in dealing with the ongoing medics’ strike.
President William Ruto, while speaking in Nairobi during the national wage bill conference, said that his administration would not give in to the doctors’ demands.
“We have to live within our means. It is just as simple as that,” said the President, reiterating his words a week ago in West Pokot where he said his government had to cut down its expenditure and live within its budget.
Then, President Ruto said that for the country to move forward “we must live within our means. We cannot spend money that we do not have, and we cannot have a budget that we cannot fund”.
On Wednesday, when he took to the podium at the conference that brought together stakeholders to discuss the public the wage bill, he slammed the medics for being inconsiderate with their demands.
“It is a tragedy for highly educated professionals to make unreasonable demands in the face of economic hardship and fiscal constraints at the expense of legitimate needs of other citizens,” said President Ruto.
The government and the medics are locked in an impasse over salaries, posting and remuneration of interns, among other contentious issues.
The medics have been on strike over the last five weeks.
The pronouncements of the President are likely to exacerbate the already bad condition, as patients seeking services in public hospitals continue to suffer.
According to the President, his government cannot afford heavy expenditures and is considering cutting on wages to effectively deliver its promises to Kenyans.
“We cannot deliver for Kenyans when we are burdened with impunity and wounded by non-compliance,” he said. “And we must work round the clock to ensure that we walk away from the current status.”
While urging the protesting doctors to embrace patriotism, President Ruto asked them to be “diligent professionals” even as his administration embarks on reducing wastage as agreed in the conference.
“We have a duty to dedicate ourselves to a citizen-centric public service paradigm. And make our contributions in order to extend the benefits of development to reach every citizen. Let us be patriotic servants and diligent professionals,” President Ruto said.
Read: The doctors’ strikes: Never-ending wars and how ministers navigated protests since independence
During the conference, the stakeholders drawn from government institutions agreed to tame their appetite in expenditures and to stop pilferage of funds within their disposal.
At the same time, Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha on Wednesday told the Senate that there was no foreseeable end in sight for the doctors’ strike.
“I cannot give a definite date or time when the strike will end. We are trying our best and right now, we are in the negotiation process,” Ms Nakhumicha told senators.
It still remains unclear whether the health workers and the government will come into an agreement soon.
On the issue of National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), Ms Nakhumicha implored healthcare facilities not to deny patients covered by NHIF treatment, particularly in light of the impending transition to the Social Health Insurance Fund.
The Health CS, while disclosing that the National Treasury anticipates to disburse Sh8.5 billion to clear the bills owed to healthcare facilities, urged the facilities to be patient with the ministry.
“I want to assure facilities that there is no cause [for alarm] and they do not need to disrupt services. Once they have provided services, [and] their claims verified and reconciled, they are going to be paid,” she said.
