20111213
Press TV
Hundreds of doctors have resumed strike in the capital city of Kenya in protest against dilapidated public health facilities and low wages, Press TV reports.

An estimated number of 2,300 doctors have gone on strike in Nairobi, demanding an increase in salaries.

“Kenya remains one of the few countries which instead of increasing the budget for health care have been decreasing it.” Boniface Chitayi of Kenya Medical Practitioners Union told Press TV.

Over the past three years, the Kenyan government has decreased funding to the health sector and institutions, which lack basic health facilities.

Kenyatta national hospital with a capacity of 2,000 beds that makes it the largest referral hospital in the east and central regions of Africa is overwhelmed by an influx of an average 10,000 patients daily.

The current patient to doctor ratio in Kenya is 40,000 to 1 and the average doctor working in a public hospital receives about 300 US dollars.

According to the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union, 26 women die in the African country daily due to pregnancy related complications, about 339 children under the age of five succumb to treatable ailments and 400 infants die due to lack clean water.

In the past two days, several Kenyan members of parliament have urged both the president and prime minister of the country to initiate dialogue with the striking doctors.