Doctors Issue 7-Day Strike Ultimatum Over Ongoing Nurses' Standoff

The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) has issued the government a seven-day ultimatum to resolve the nationwide nurses' strike, warning that doctors will join the industrial action if the standoff drags on. KMPDU Secretary-General Dr Davji Bhimji Atellah said the strike, now in its 41st day, has pushed public hospitals to breaking point and left doctors carrying a workload they were never meant to shoulder. 'Essential services have been disrupted. There is no better way to say that patients going to hospital who need nursing care cannot get it, and nursing care is key for any health service to be functional,' Atellah said. He said doctors, already stretched thin by staff shortages, are increasingly being forced into roles that belong to nurses, a situation he called unsustainable. 'Today we have 40 days in our public hospitals across the country that are constrained. It is increasingly becoming unsafe when doctors, whom we know are in shortage in the country, are overburdened,' he added. Atellah linked the disruption to a rise in preventable deaths, including among children, and accused the government of dragging its feet. 'The government of the day cannot continue to assume things are normal when a key component of the health system has been on strike for over 40 days,' he said. According to the Ministry of Health, 458 perinatal deaths and 75 maternal deaths have been recorded since the strike began. Nurses walked off the job on July 29, 2026, after talks over the implementation of their Collective Bargaining Agreement collapsed. The CBA traces back to negotiations that started before the 2017 General Election but has never been fully rolled out, according to the Council of Governors. Council of Governors Chair Ahmed Abdullahi last week appealed to nurses to return to work, saying governors remained open to further talks and that negotiations were already underway when the strike was called. With no resolution in sight, KMPDU's warning raises the possibility of a wider healthcare shutdown, one that would pull in doctors, clinical officers and other health workers already strained by the nurses' absence. For patients, many of whom rely on public hospitals because private care is out of reach, the stakes could not be higher. The union says the clock is now ticking, and the next seven days will determine whether Kenya's health sector holds together or slides into a deeper crisis.