Talks aimed at ending the doctors' strike were disrupted by accusations of information leakage, prompting union officials to threaten abandoning the negotiations.
A source close to the mediation table reported that the parties had agreed to keep the progress of the talks confidential, excluding all third parties, including the media.
However, a Facebook post by Dennis Itumbi, Senior Director of Innovation, Digital and Diaspora Communication in the Office of the President, allegedly revealed updates on the talks, sparking outrage among union officials. The post claimed that the government and doctors had reached an agreement on all contentious issues in the 2013 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), except for salary.
Itumbi stated in the post,
"Doctors want to get pay that GOK (Government of Kenya) cannot afford. They want the lowest paid doctor to get Sh221,000 and the highest paid Sh940,000 (plus allowance goes to Sh1.2 million),"
and added that some county doctors would start benefiting from the government's offer, though details of the offer were not provided.
The doctors' negotiation team confronted the government side over the alleged leak, citing a breach of their prior agreement to maintain confidentiality during the talks.
A source noted,
"It was an agreement before we started the talks that no third party would get information about what goes on in the negotiation process but this was breached by the government side."
The Health Principal Secretary, Nicholas Muraguri, was accused by the doctors of divulging sensitive information to third parties.
The recovered account cited reporting by Mediamax.
