NAIROBI, Kenya — As Kiambu County’s health services remain paralyzed after more than four months of industrial action, the Council of Governors (CoG) on Monday convened a consultative meeting in Nairobi to address mounting concerns.
The session comes amid threats by doctors to stage a mass protest over what they call “hostile and unsafe” working conditions.
The meeting, scheduled at CoG’s Delta Corner offices from 9:00 a.m., aims to mediate between the Kiambu County Government and the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU), whose unresolved standoff has disrupted medical services across the county.
KMPDU has drafted a protest program to begin with a press briefing at Kiambu Level V Hospital at 9:30 a.m., before marching to the County Assembly and Governor’s Office.
The union says the move marks the 138th day of a strike sparked by systemic neglect and threats to clinician welfare.
“Kiambu has become a hostile county. The crisis shows in supervised deaths, illegal medical fees, media suppression, and persecution of health workers,” the union said in a Sunday notice.
At the core of the dispute is the failure to start medical internships for the 2025/2026 cohort — a decision that has intensified the crisis and fueled accusations of breach of agreement by the county health administration.
KMPDU has also blamed CoG leaders for dismissing reports of 131 newborn deaths in Kiambu hospitals as false, labeling the response as indifferent to suffering.
The union has called for public apologies, an independent investigation, and dissolution of the county government in extreme cases of negligence.
This tug-of-war has drawn intense criticism of county leadership. Kiambu’s health sector has borne the brunt — patients left unattended, operations deferred, and emergency services stretched thin. The public has increasingly blamed both the county and CoG for failing to protect vulnerable citizens.
Observers say the CoG meeting is a critical test of whether devolved governance structures can resolve such crises or will collapse under political and institutional pressures.
Whether this intervention prevents a protest becomes a litmus test for the government’s commitment to healthcare delivery and worker rights.
