This archive report was first published on 17 July 2020.
Kenya Turns to Cuban Doctors Amid COVID-19 Surge ¶
On July 17, 2020, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe announced that Kenya had reached out to Cuba to fly in 20 highly skilled doctors to help bolster its health system in critical areas during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The doctors, who are part of the Henry Reeve Brigade, will be stationed at the newly refurbished molecular and imaging centre at Kenyatta University Teaching and Referral Hospital. The centre, which will be the first Public Molecular Imaging Center of its kind in the country, East and Central Africa, will be ready for use in nine months.
The government's decision to import health workers at a time when thousands of young Kenyan graduates were yet to be absorbed into the labour market was vehemently opposed by the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU). The union claimed that the government had failed to keep its promise of employing more health workers it promised.
The union hinted that it may ask its members not to handle any coronavirus patient and allow foreign counterparts serve "their fellow country men and COVID-19 patients". The union tweeted, "Cuban doctors brought on board yet GOK is yet to employ Kenyan specialists and doctors as advertised three months ago. In total, contradiction of buy Kenya build Kenya. The union shall let the Cubans serve their “fellow country men” and All COVID-19 patients,"
When the doctors first arrived in the country in June 2018, Kenyan doctors were against the importation of the medics arguing that the country still had many qualified doctors. The KMPDU claimed that the Caribbean doctors did not meet Kenya's acceptability criteria.
