Health Ministry Cites Budget Constraints in Tiff with Interns as Pressure Intensifies

The Ministry of Health has said that its options are limited in its ongoing conflict with 3, 000 medical interns who have been protesting outside the ministry’s headquarters in Nairobi.

Citing financial constraints, the ministry said that KSh 3.7 Bn allocated for the internship program in the 2024/25 budget will not be enough to remunerate all the interns as stipulated in the 2017 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).The Cabinet Secretary for Health, Susan Nakhumicha, said that the government can only afford to post 552 medical interns, with subsequent postings to be made once the ministry mobilizes more funds.Alternatively, it offered that the interns agree to receive the SRC-recommended KSh 70,000 per month instead of KSh 206,400 inked in the CBA, a highly controversial option that is subject to a court case.“Whereas KMPDU preferred that an intern be posted based on the 2017 CBA rates of KSh 206,400 per month, the realities of the fiscal space coupled with the withdrawal of the Finance Bill 2024 cannot permit this. Further, an advisory from the SRC advising on a monthly stipend of KSh 70,000 to facilitate the posting of all interns was challenged in the Employment and Labour Relations Court,” Health CS, Susan Nakhumicha said in a statement.

The medics began protesting on Monday under a march dubbed ‘Occupy MOH’, citing that the Return-To-Work formula that KMPDU signed on May this year had not yielded the expected results. The agreement had ended a 56-day strike that paralyzed health facilities, but many of the issues remain unsolved.

CS Nakhumicha argued that since January 2023, the ministry posted 4,156 interns across six cadres of the profession at the agreed CBA rate until June 2024. This cost the government KSh 4.2 bn as opposed to the medics’ demands which would push that figure to KSh 4.6 bn, which is unavailable in this financial year’s budget.

“So far numerous meetings have been held with good progress made towards achieving consensus. Of note is that both parties agree on the need for interns to be posted without further delay,” Nakhumicha added.

On Monday, medical interns lamented that the delays in posting have caused them psychological trauma and the government did not address the matter with the seriousness it deserved. This prompted the ongoing protests, which have seen protesting interns protesting day and night outside the ministry headquarters.

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