A Nairobi court has dismissed a case that challenged the right of Cuban doctors to work in Kenya.
The Employment and Labour Relations Court has ruled that there is no proof that doctors’ rights have been infringed by the decision to hire Cuban doctors.
Fifty Cuban specialists, including surgeons, radiologists, and neurologists, who arrived in the country earlier this month can now begin to work in hospitals across the country.
In this year’s budget, presented last week, the treasury allocated $10m to cater for salaries and other costs of bringing in the Cuban doctors.
The Cuban doctors are caught in the middle of a heated debate in Kenya. The Health ministry has estimated that there is a shortage of up to 42,800 health workers in the country. But the doctors’ union says there are 1,683 unemployed doctors.
In the last two years Kenyan nurses have gone on strike three times, with the latest one lasting five whole months.
Last year, doctors in the country held a 100-day strike, the longest the country has ever experienced.
These industrial actions have continuously paralysed services in thousands of public facilities, leaving patients who cannot afford private care, stranded.
-BBC
