CS Nakumicha: Kenya won't renew the contracts of Cuban doctors

The Health Ministry, according to Nakumicha, who spoke at the official launch of the Pre-National Human Resources for Health Dialogue on Wednesday, is confident that Kenyan doctors are up to the task.

"As a ministry, I am confident that we will have a highly motivated workforce," the CS said. “Our very own healthcare professionals are committed to the cause.”

In 2017, the Kenyan and Cuban governments reached an agreement under which 100 Cuban specialist doctors were hired to work in Kenyan hospitals.

Kenyan doctors, on the other hand, were to train in Cuba.

In 2018, the first group of Cuban doctors arrived in Nairobi from Havana, consisting of 53 family doctors and 47 specialists.

The deal between the two countries resulted in 120 Cuban doctors working in the country as of July 2020; with the lot being deployed to different counties, among them Mandera, Wajir, Isiolo, Lamu and Vihiga. 

Their mission was to assist in the fields of nephrology, radiology, orthopedics, surgery, and neurology.

Further, the doctors would help in training local specialists to offer the same kind of care found in Cuba.

The deal, while perfect on paper, was not without issues and was marred by a slew of roadblocks, ranging from a massive pay disparity between Kenyan doctors and their Cuban counterparts to language barriers that hampered the Cuban specialists.

Their continued presence in Kenya has caused concern in the health sector, with health practitioners claiming that it puts doctors trained in Kenya who are unemployed at risk.

After the two-year contract expired, former President Uhuru Kenyatta's administration extended it, causing even more consternation among health professionals.

So far, no directive has been provided on how the exchange program will move forward since Kenyan doctors were taken to Cuba in the same year.