KMPDU accuses hacker attacks in suspension of Occupy MOH protests

The Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) has rejected the cancellation of protests planned for today to pressure the government to deploy around 1,500 junior doctors.

According to Davji Atellah, the union’s general secretary, an unauthorized entity took control of the organization’s official X name before issuing a misleading announcement suspending the protest.

“The reports circulating that #OccupyMoH has been suspended are false. The union leadership is compromised and we are trying our best to regain control and clean it up,” he said.

“We stay strong. We stay focused,” he added in an X-post.

The KMPDU, in a letter to the Nairobi Regional Police Commander, announced a day-long sit-in outside the Ministry of Health headquarters at Afya House, beginning today, Monday, July 8, 2024.

However, in an early morning tweet, the planned protests were apparently suspended, citing “ongoing discussions” and “commitments” from the government to employ the interns in accordance with the doctors’ collective agreement of 2017.

The announcement immediately sparked backlash, requiring a clarification from Atellah.

“My colleagues who currently lead the KMPDU should realise that the issues at the forefront of #OccupyMoH go beyond industrial action. They are also health policy issues,” noted Dr. Ouma Oluga, a former secretary general of the organisation.

A return-to-work agreement signed between the government and the union on May 8, 2024 to end the 56-day doctors’ strike stipulated that the interns would be deployed until July 7, 2024.

Some of the interns concerned have been waiting for more than two years for the mandatory internship, which is a prerequisite for obtaining a license to practice medicine.

The government has still not fully implemented this provision of the agreement, which restored the provision of medical services after the lower-cost public hospitals had been almost completely shut down.