Why Did The Cuban Doctors Come To Kenya? What Was Their Contract? In 2017, Kenya and Cuba signed a health agreement that involved an exchang...

Why Did The Cuban Doctors Come To Kenya? What Was Their Contract?

In 2017, Kenya and Cuba signed a health agreement that involved an exchange program between the two countries. Under the agreement, Cuban doctors were sent to Kenya to help fill gaps in county hospitals, while Kenyan doctors were sent to Cuba for specialized training. This program was initiated by the Kenyan Ministry of Health to address the shortage of medical practitioners in the country.

Cuba is renowned for having one of the best healthcare systems in the world, largely due to the late Fidel Castro's socialist ideology that made healthcare accessible to all Cuban citizens. This focus on preventative medicine sets Cuba's healthcare system apart from Kenya's curative approach. In Cuba, the government covers everything from simple dental care to medicine and even home visits from doctors.

As one of the largest exporters of medical practitioners to other parts of the world, Cuba has benefitted countries such as Brazil and Venezuela. With the 2017 agreement, Kenya also became a beneficiary. The first batch of Cuban doctors, consisting of 53 family doctors and 47 specialists, arrived in Nairobi in 2018 at the request of county governments. In exchange, at least 50 Kenyan doctors were sent to Havana for specialized training.

The Cuban doctors were sent to different counties, including Mandera, Wajir, Isiolo, Lamu, and Vihiga, to help in areas such as nephrology, radiology, orthopedics, surgery, and neurology. They were also tasked with training local specialists to offer the same kind of care found in Cuba.

However, two of the Cuban doctors deployed to Mandera County were abducted in April 2019 by Al-Shabaab militants. Fortunately, they were released in October 2020. In July 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was ravaging the world, including Kenya, another cohort of 20 specialized doctors arrived from Cuba to fight the virus. This brought the number of Cuban doctors in Kenya to 120.

The arrival of the Cuban doctors caused tension in Kenya's health sector, with local practitioners opposing the move, arguing that it would disadvantage those trained but yet to be employed. The two-year contract was extended by former President Uhuru Kenyatta's administration, leading to consternation among local doctors.

The continued stay of the Cuban doctors in the country is now a subject of push and pull, with the Council of Governors and the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union demanding that they return to Havana. CoG Chair and Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru claims that the Cuban doctors are earning millions of shillings while Kenyan doctors work with meager pay. Waiguru believes that the Cuban doctors should be sent back to their country, and local specialists employed to offer services and care to Kenyans. KMPDU supports her sentiments.

The push to send the Cuban doctors back to Havana is partly motivated by the "extravagant" contracts that they signed. The doctors were guaranteed comprehensive medical coverage under the National Health Insurance Fund, and both the national and county governments covered all their bills, from travel to accommodation and food. The government of Kenya pays at least KSh625,000 per Cuban doctor.

Currently, most of the Cuban doctors are based at the Kenya School of Government in Lower Kabete after they were withdrawn from their counties of posting due to security reasons. There is no clear indication of how long the new contracts will take, but the push for the Cuban doctors to be sent back to Havana to pave the way for local doctors, especially those yet to be employed, is growing.