President Uhuru Kenyatta will on Wednesday officially deploy foreign doctors from Cuba to the 47 counties in the country.
The foreign doctors, who have been in the country since 6th of this month, had to wait for a case in court challenging their hiring to be decided upon.
A case presented to the Employment and Labour Relations Court by three unemployed medical officers challenged the hiring of foreign doctors when there are many unemployed doctors in the country. The three argued that they should be given first priority before outsiders are considered.
Unfortunately, Justice Onesmus Makau ruled against their case on June 19.
“The petitioners have not proved that the doctors rights and the rights of other specialized doctors were infringed by the decision to import the Cuban doctors,” said Justice Onesmus.
The Cuban doctors include 5 nephrologists, orthopaedic surgeons, 3 radiologists, neurologists and plastic surgeons.
This move, however, has received a lot of opposition even from the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU).
“Cuban Doctors will cost the taxpayer more than Ksh.2 billion without the additional expenses of security, transport, housing and food by the county governments,” said the KMPDU Secretary-General Ouma Oluga.
The deployment exercise is set to take place at Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA) Warehouse in Industrial Area, Nairobi today afternoon.