MOMBASA, Kenya Mar 4 – Doctors in Mombasa have called off their impending strike after reaching a last-minute agreement with Governor Abdulswamad Nassir, averting what would have been a major disruption of health services across the county.The strike, which was set to commence Wednesday, was suspended on Tuesday evening following hours of negotiations between officials from the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists’ Union (KMPDU) and the county government.Speaking after the meeting, KMPDU Secretary General Davji Atellah said the union had secured key commitments from the county, particularly on long-standing promotion delays.“As you know, our strike with Mombasa County is to commence today at midnight. In the morning, we had a Kamkunji with doctors to discuss the various issues we addressed in the strike notice that was lapsing tonight,” he said.Atellah announced that 105 doctors will be promoted by April 1, 2026. The promotions will cut across several job groups, including 15 doctors in the common cadre, 25 moving to Job Group Q, 25 to Job Group P, 17 to Job Group R, and four to Job Group S.An additional 20 doctors will receive their promotion letters by July 1, 2026.“That means all the doctors that we presented to the county will be promoted on April 1 and July 1,” Atellah said.The parties also agreed to review the status of doctors serving on contractual terms. According to Atellah, the county will review their contracts and issue letters of confirmation or convert them to permanent and pensionable terms by June 1, 2026.Governor Nassir said the county’s policy has been to grant permanent and pensionable terms after two three-year contracts to assess discipline, attendance and performance.However, he agreed to review doctors already on contract, and said the exercise would be extended across all cadres.“As we do that, the county government will do it simultaneously for all other cadres, from doctors to nurses to firemen to inspectors and everyone else,” Nassir said, noting that the move would have no additional budgetary implications.On the issue of delayed SACCO and statutory remittances, a key grievance in the strike notice, Atellah said the union and county had reconciled their figures.While the union had earlier cited five months of non-remittance, a review established that two months were pending.The county committed to clearing one month by June and the remaining month in the next financial year.Governor Nassir described the issue as “prehistoric” and maintained that the county is an “excellent paymaster” to doctors, adding that the outstanding deductions were statutory in nature.The union had also protested the interdiction of the CEO of Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital, Dr. Iqbal Khandwalla, terming it procedurally defective.Atellah said the matter was not extensively discussed during the latest meeting because it had already been addressed.The union had moved to court over the interdiction, and by the time of the talks, the interdiction had been lifted.“We did not have much deliberation on that particular matter because what we were against was the interdiction, but at the time of our discussion today the interdiction had been lifted,” he said.In addition, both sides agreed in principle to shield doctors from political interference in hospitals.“We’ve agreed with the governor that MCAs, MPs and any politicians have no role in medical practice. The governor has agreed to support us and protect doctors from any political interference or insecurity that may interfere with their work,” Atellah said.Governor Nassir confirmed that while technical teams would remain behind to finalize documentation, all substantive issues had been agreed upon in principle.“There was an agreement done in 2021 and part of that agreement had already been implemented even before we received the strike letter. Only a few issues were remaining and are currently being processed,” he said.Last week, KMPDU had issued a seven-day strike notice to the County Government of Mombasa, accusing it of breaching the 2021 Return-to-Work Formula (RTWF) and failing to address career stagnation, contractual employment concerns, manual payroll systems, and non-remittance of statutory deductions.The union had warned that unless the grievances were resolved, doctors would withdraw their labour from midnight, threatening paralysis of healthcare services in the county.