Kenya’s striking doctors continue to hold out after 50 days of industrial action • FRANCE 24

Kenya’s striking doctors continue to hold out after 50 days of industrial action • FRANCE 24

[Music]
thanks very much for staying with us
time now for I on Africa with me Georgia
Calvin Smith tonight striking doctors in
Kenya still hold out after more than a
month and a half of industrial action
they’re calling for better pay Staffing
and conditions that they say are
essential to improving the country’s
overall health
infrastructure also Jacob Zuma may not
yet have a completely free clear run up
to next month’s election as his new MK
party has to deny allegations that it
forged signatures to be on the
ballot and known locally as the menang
the xylophone has a small but dedicated
following in Cameroon we hit up a
festival dedicated to its sounds in yund
that’s attracted of fados from across
the continent
but first Kenyan doctors and the
government still haven’t reached an
agreement after almost 50 days of
crippling strikes about 7,000 health
professionals including Medics
Pharmacists and dentists walked off the
job in mid March accusing the government
of dragging its feet over implementing a
2017 deal meant to impr improve pay and
conditions thousands took to the streets
again on Tuesday our Olivia bizo reports
hundreds of healthcare workers are once
again taking to the streets of Nairobi
they’ve been on strike since mid-march
they want better pay they want better
working conditions and they want more
doctors to be hired into the system
especially young doctors who after years
of training are still struggling to find
permanent work protesters here are also
angry over the plans to cut the salaries
of interns who for the past seven years
have been earning the equivalent of
€1,400
the government now wants to decrease
that salary to the equivalent of
€400 I feel cheated I feel robbed
actually because it’s the same
government that’s taking school fees at
very high rates they they they cannot
come out and say they they are reducing
the salary for the whole medical field
they’ll start with the the interns the
most vulnerable and that’s why our
seniors are standing with us in
solidarity our cycle is on the 48th day
we expect that um they will now start
hearing our voice because they have been
turning a DEA here to what you have been
requesting or asking as our right this
isn’t the first time that healthcare
workers have gone on strike in Kenya
back in 2017 doctors went on strike for
a 100 days eventually union leaders
signed an agreement with the government
which addressed a lot of the issues that
they’re talking about today including a
maximum number of hours promotions and
of course pay but today these Strikers
are saying that all of those changes
still haven’t been registered or
implemented mali’s Security Forces say
that they’ve killed a key Islamic State
group commander in an operation in the
north of the country over the weekend
Abu hia known by the Alias of heigo is
believed to have been behind the 2017
assault in ner in which eight troops
from n and the US were killed coloni go
who’s run mly since it underwent a
second C in 2020 21 has vowed to ramp up
a nationally and regionally led push
back against an extremist
Insurgency and it looks like former
South African president Jacob Zuma may
not yet have a completely free and clear
runup to the May 29th election the cp’s
representing the new MK party has denied
allegations reportedly made by a former
member that it forged signatures needed
to officially secure a place in the race
a criminal complaint has been lodged and
ventel tells us
more Jacob Zuma and his controverses
were part in the middle of a storm on
one hand the part is in the throws of
some serious aftershocks following
Revelations that senior leaders
including co-founder jabani Calo have
been thrown out after allegations that a
significant number of the 15,000
signatures which the mkp presented to
the IEC in order to be registered as a
political party were forgeries it is
also claimed that The Purge leaders had
held secret meetings with thec kumala
also allegedly raised funds for the mkm
party which they never actually made it
to the party and while the party is
rearranging its leadership member number
one Jacob Zumer May yet again be kicked
off the party nomination list as the IEC
is appealing the Electoral Court’s
decision to allow Zuma to remain on the
ballot the IEC had originally ruled that
Zuma could not be nominated because of
his sentence for contempt of court the
Electoral Court had overruled them
saying he could remain on the list but
with the iec’s appeal a constitutional
Court ruling is expected on the 10th of
May in other news deia is a disease
caused by toxins producing toxin
producing bacteria in severe cases it
can be deadly and it’s currently seeing
an historic Resurgence in West Africa
which has seen more than 16,000 cases
since midm and 800 deaths in Nigeria
alone Guinea morania and ner amongst the
other countries in the region to have
seen some alarming outbreaks our
correspondent tells us
more nobody should be dying from
diptheria in
2024 the disease which mostly affects
the upper respiratory tract is easily
preventable through vaccination and yet
there have been more than 1,000 deaths
on the continent since May last year
mostly in West Africa the main reason
according to this expert uh from the NGO
medicine s Frontier is low vaccination
rates caused by political
instability
imag imagine you are the mother of a
child under 11 months today is the day
your child needs to get vaccinated
against deia because he is 2 months just
as you are getting ready to go and
vaccinate your child you hear gunshots
all around you feel like you’re in
danger you have a choice to make either
go and vaccinate your child or protect
your child’s life and your own life
naturally most mothers try to protect
the life of their child by fleeing war
and
insecurity this of course means that
large numbers of children haven’t
received a full course of vaccination
making out breaks more likely there is
an antitoxin which can be used to treat
diptheria but the pharmaceutical
companies that produce it have scarcely
scaled up production since the outbreak
of epidemics in various countries on the
African continent last
year Well congales president Felix
chisti held a joint press conference
with his French counterpart here in
Paris on Tuesday it saw French leader
Emanuel macr calling on Rwanda to stop
its support of the M23 Rebels who’ve
been terrorizing Dr Congo’s East tens of
thousands of people have been displaced
in recent fighting since the M23 took up
arms again in 2021 after an 8-year
Hiatus and they’re not the only ones to
have been pressuring communities in East
India Congo over the years however un
peacekeepers who’ve been operating there
for the last 25 years are pulling out on
the order of kinasa local police
officers are due to step in but that
some feir is unlikely to be an easy
transition broken down doors and locks
looted electrical systems dilapitated
walls two months after the departure of
Pakistani peacekeepers this former
military base looks more like a squat
than a police
station I’ve been sleeping on
floorboards for 2 months am I a human or
an animal I sleep here on the plank what
did the UN Mission leave behind
nothing after 25 years on the ground the
congales authorities argue that the
15,000 or so blue helmets deployed to
defend civilians humanitarian personnel
and human rights Defenders are ineffect
Ive against armed groups and called for
the troops to leave the country against
the backdrop of renewed violence in the
East police officers are sent to replace
them but are left to fend for
themselves a policeman who has a car but
doesn’t have fuel how’s that supposed to
work well there’s an intervention
somewhere how are we going to get around
that that’s a
problem public opinion over the Manco
mission is divided last year violent
anti- demonstrations were severely
repressed by the congales Army leaving
dozens of people
dead but in the South kibu Province some
still feel like they benefited from the
mission’s
presence we young people from kamola
really liked monusco they had no problem
with us we used to do odd jobs around
the bay and gations or lunch in exchange
but since they left nothing I’m really
disappointed in January kinasa called
for a full withdrawal of Manco troops by
the end of this year
[Music]
meanwhile the UN Security Council has
not yet set a
deadline and known locally as the menang
the xylophone has a small but dedicated
following in Cameroon a festival
dedicated to its sound has just wrapped
up and our team sent us this
report the air Trump with sounds of
traditional music during the opening
ceremony of the international xylophone
Festival in
Day held at Club Noah on the outskirts
of the capital of Cameron it captivated
audiences who washed as xylophone
virtuosos competed against each other
17-year-old Amman has been playing the
instrument since
childhood we’ve had the xylophone at
home since I was very young I just
immersed myself in the instrument since
it was already in my environment from
time to time I tried it out and one day
I could do it this Third Edition of the
yunde international xylophone Festival
Drew musicians from all over the world
including big names like males Mustafa
de the festival also offered up
compositions that fuse traditional
African music and Jazz a mix of that
went down with even the most experienced
listeners there are some talented young
xylophone players here in Cameroon and
we’re really working together to restore
the image people have this instrument
the xylophone is really important in
Africa it’s part of our
tradition he pan is a driving force
behind the festival he is a passionate
fan of the xylophone and fears that the
instruments wning popularity in Africa
means its Rich sounds risk falling
silent the xylophone risks disappearing
if we do nothing this is because it’s
been gradually overshadowed a few years
if we don’t do something to protect our
own culture it will practically
disappear although it is recognized by
UNESCO as part of Humanity’s intangible
cultural heritage the xylophone is not
very popular with contemporary African
youth the festival is doing what it can
to turn up the volume on the ancestral
instrument well that’s it for I on
Africa for now thanks for joining us
though and do so again if you can until
then take care
[Music]

In tonight’s edition: Striking doctors in Kenya hold out as talks with the government lead nowhere after more than six weeks of industrial action. Also, former South African president Jacob Zuma may not yet have a completely clear run to the May 29 election, as his new party is forced to deny allegations it forged signatures to be on the ballot. And we head to the International Xylophone Festival in Cameroon, where artists celebrate the instrument to prevent it disappearing. 

Read more about this story in our article: https://f24.my/AIXK.y

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