(Kennedy Mong'are Okong'o was the first Nyamira Senator. He is also the National Liberal Party leader)
With the death of a Kenyan doctor in unclear circumstances in Cuba, it goes without saying that this was a bad idea.
This is a tip of the iceberg in the mutual agreement between Kenya and Cuba to offer Kenyan doctors specialist training.
The Jubilee government has for the last six years notoriously made human errors on policy in almost everything they embark on.
A case in point is that of the 50 doctors sent to Cuba purportedly for specialist training who are among the best brains the country has.
They went to our medical school in a system compatible with the Commonwealth, USA and European countries.
All these countries offer an enabling environment without unnecessary pressure for the graduate doctors compared to a single party dictatorship in Cuba whose programs are run in a military set up.
Basic human right for training in Cuba is wanting not to mention the vagaries of weather for our Kenyan doctors already in Cuba.
The resultant of this is the loss of not only a life but a human resource for the immediate family and the country.
It is hypocritical for the government to send a team to Cuba to investigate the status of the Kenyan doctors currently stationed in Cuba’s capital, Havana.
This should have been the first thing to do in benchmark before sending our sons and daughters to a death trap.
The rational thing for the government to do should have been to send doctors to India - a Commonwealth country with state-of-the-art facilities unlike obsolete and old fashioned equipment in Cuba which is struggling to get out economic embargo imposed by the US about 50 years ago.
My appeal to government is to recall all the Kenyan medics sent to Cuba and explore other bilateral efforts with countries like Canada, Germany and India for specialist training and support for our graduate doctors.
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