Kenya is increasingly becoming a country of strikes. If doctors are not downing their tools, it is teachers, lecturers, nurses, aviation workers or another group of public servants.
The common denominator is familiar: unfulfilled promises contained in collective bargaining agreements.
This endless cycle of industrial unrest is neither inevitable nor sustainable. It disrupts essential services, hurts the economy and punishes innocent Kenyans who have no hand in the disputes.
The government must restore honesty and credibility to labour negotiations. Agreements should be informed by realistic financial projections, not political expediency or the desire to win votes. Once signed, they must be honoured.
Granted, the public purse is stretched. But this argument rings hollow when billions continue to disappear through corruption, wasteful expenditure, inflated procurement and unnecessary government extravagance.
The government must demonstrate that it has exhausted opportunities to eliminate wastage before pleading inability to honour its commitments to workers.
Money saved through prudent expenditure should be redirected towards meeting negotiated obligations.
Workers, too, deserve candid engagement on what is affordable and when payments can be made.
A government that signs agreements it has no intention of implementing merely postpones conflict.
Industrial peace cannot be built on empty promises. It must rest on trust, fiscal discipline and integrity.
