Kenya, 6 January 2026 – The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) has unveiled an ambitious agenda to secure a fresh Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) and accelerate the posting of medical interns across Kenya\u2019s health facilities, intensifying efforts to stabilise the workforce and resolve longstanding tensions in the public health sector.<\/p>\n
The union\u2019s plans come after significant gains this past year in salary arrears, promotions and job security for frontline medics, and ahead of expected negotiations on pay, terms and placement frameworks for 2026.<\/p>\n
At a press briefing in Nairobi, KMPDU Secretary General Dr. Davji Atellah said the union\u2019s 2026 priorities include implementing wide\u2011ranging salary adjustments across counties and ministries, seamless intern postings, and finalising the long\u2011delayed CBA that governs the working conditions of thousands of healthcare workers.<\/p>\n
Dr. Atellah highlighted that the union\u2019s programme also builds on the \u201chistoric milestones\u201d achieved in 2025, including the rollback of years\u2011long arrears and the restoration of full CBA\u2011compliant pay for hundreds of newly posted interns.<\/p>\n
The union said that in August 2024, 1,257 interns received full CBA pay with arrears, and that the current group of about 1,750 interns now earns their stipulated salaries from the first month of posting, a major step toward reinforcing workforce morale and fairness in the sector.<\/p>\n
Additionally, over 3,100 doctors were promoted across counties, ministries and newly upgraded Level 6 hospitals, while postgraduate training approvals that had stalled since 2017 were resumed, with more than 600 fee approvals already paid.<\/p>\n
Doctors have long contested delays and disputes around intern postings and salaries.<\/p>\n
An earlier exercise led by the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC) saw balloting and subsequent posting of medical officers, clinical officers, pharmacists and other cadres to internship centres nationwide, set to begin from July\u202f1,\u202f2025 after months of negotiations with the Ministry of Health.<\/p>\n
The push for a new CBA follows a period of protracted struggle between the union and government officials over remuneration levels. At the core of earlier disputes was a proposal by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to cut interns\u2019 monthly pay to between Sh40,000 and Sh70,000, a move the union vigorously opposed, insisting on the Sh206,000 figure rooted in the 2017 CBA, a fight that drew widespread protests and even threatened nationwide strikes.<\/p>\n
In 2025, the impasse was largely resolved after union pressure led to the Government posting thousands of interns, over 6,000 in the 2025\/2026 cohort, with their placements and remuneration aligned more closely with union demands. KMPDU lauded the government and Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale for what it described as a \u201ctremendous leap forward\u201d for public healthcare, marking a key victory in efforts to stabilise the sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kenya, 6 January 2026 – The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) has unveiled an ambitious…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[63,1100,1104,854,1102,1107,1109,1106,1098,1096,1101,1103,1108,1105,1094,302,83,1099,1028,1095,321,262,1097,80,96,261],"class_list":{"0":"post-6971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kenya","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-african-business","10":"tag-african-culture","11":"tag-african-development","12":"tag-african-economy","13":"tag-african-education","14":"tag-african-entertainment","15":"tag-african-healthcare","16":"tag-african-media","17":"tag-african-news","18":"tag-african-politics","19":"tag-african-society","20":"tag-african-sports","21":"tag-african-technology","22":"tag-analysis","23":"tag-breaking-news","24":"tag-business","25":"tag-continental-news","26":"tag-current-affairs","27":"tag-dawan-africa","28":"tag-east-africa","29":"tag-economy","30":"tag-horn-of-africa","31":"tag-kenya","32":"tag-news","33":"tag-politics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}