The doctors’ strike, which began on December 5, 2016, has now lasted two and a half months. Public distress at its non-resolution reached new levels with the jailing of union leaders at the start of this week.

As the jailed leaders used their time behind bars to provide healthcare services to prison inmates, doctors in private practice affiliated with the professional body also gave notice they were closing shop for two days in solidarity — supported in some instances by the private hospitals they work for.

Fortunately, however, the court agreed to their release on the condition that negotiations resume within seven days.

So, why is the government of Kenya, as represented by the Ministry of Health, not stepping up to the plate in the manner that a public health crisis of this magnitude requires?

Because this is beyond a question of the public doctors’ labour rights. The public doctors’ demands also concern their assessment of what it will take for the GoK to respect, protect and fulfil the right to health — meaning assuring the public that health services are indeed available, accessible and of good quality for all. Not just the few who can afford to pay for private health services.

And the public doctors’ assessment is, first, that the GoK must also act to improve the doctor to patient ratio, currently at 1:17,000 as opposed to the World Health Organisation recommended ratio of 1:1,000. And, second, that the GoK must also act to ensure public health providers are properly equipped (including with such basics as… gasp… medicine).

These are not unreasonable demands.

Yet the GoK has completely failed to finalise negotiation of the unconcluded clauses of the 2013 CBA in good faith. Healthcare provision is a devolved function, it’s true. But policy and financing remain the responsibility of the national government. Nor can we frame the striking doctors as being simply “greedy.”

Their demands overall have to do with enabling the GoK to deliver on the right to health. They are in the public interest.

The fact that those responsible for public policy on public service delivery no longer utilise public services themselves if they can avoid doing so has created an alarming disconnect. That we see every time any category of public workers go on strike — think here of the teachers’ strikes.

Public policymakers are no longer personally invested in ensuring public service delivery. Because they can pay for private service delivery. For everything from education to health.

Second, this disconnect explains how the Auditor-General can tell us that the Ministry of Health cannot account for the absolutely shocking figure of Ksh5 billion (yes, that’s $50 million), including almost Ksh1 billion meant to equip counties to deliver on reproductive and sexual health services. While the GoK has the audacity to tell us there’s “no money” to meet the striking doctors’ demands.

We could, for example, have mobile reproductive and sexual health clinics in every single county and sub-county. But without public doctors to staff them, their utility would be zero.

The public, including those of middle- and higher-incomes who also pay for private health services, must get fully behind resolving this public health crisis. We must act in solidarity with the striking doctors.

L. Muthoni Wanyeki is Amnesty International’s regional director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes