A Nairobi court has issued an arrest warrant on officials of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) for failure to appear in court for sentencing.

Justice Helen Wasilwa of the Employment and Labour Relations Court directed the officer in charge of Kilimani Police Station to affect the arrest warrants.

The officials are being charged with contempt of court for defying a court order barring them from calling a nationwide doctors strike.

Doctors have been on a nationwide strike since December over the implementation of a CBA signed in 2013. Efforts to reach an agreement with the government have been futile and on Monday, the Council of Governors directed the doctors to resume duty by Wednesday or face the sack.

“We are calling upon the doctors again, to take the offer by the government and resume work,” said Peter Munya, the chairman of the Council of Governors.

“We have agreed that those who don’t resume work, then the process of taking disciplinary action against them begins on Wednesday,” he said.

Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu has also hinted that the government may resort to hiring foreign health professionals following the doctors’ rejection of the government’s 40 per cent pay increment proposal.

In a meeting chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House Mombasa last week, the government offered doctors an enhanced pay package that would cost the Treasury an additional Sh4 billion every year.

In the meeting chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House Mombasa, it was agreed that the entry point of doctors would be enhanced from Job Group L to M, and gross salaries raised to Sh196,000 from the current Sh140,244.

The KMPDU however rejected the deal saying it failed to take into account other agreements mentioned in the collective bargaining agreement such as the need to better equip hospitals to funding research and addressing the security of doctors at work