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.