A newly published report by the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board’s (KMPDB) 2018 shows American doctors are Kenya’s largest force of foreign doctors with 358 doctors.
The report which gave a breakdown of the nationalities of foreign doctors shows that out of 1,019 foreign doctors licensed to practice in Kenya by end of March 2018, 358 of them American.
Out of the 358 American doctors, a huge number of them, 149 were stationed at Tenwek Mission Hospital in Bomet County while AIC Kijabe Mission Hospital accounted for 86 doctors.
Ampath Brase Clinic has 42 American doctors while PCEA Chogoria Clinic and AIC Cure International Hospital have 15 doctors of American origin each.
Though the bulk of the doctors at Tenwek are to be envied, these doctors work on short contracts and leave.
“The number is high because those are the ones licensed to have worked there, some work for as little as two weeks and leave the country,” Daniel Yumbya, the KMPDB chief executive said as quoted by Business Daily.
At the Thika Level Five Hospital, nine American doctors have been licensed to work there while there are several others licensed to work at Kenyatta National Hospital, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Hospital in Nyanza.
India comes in second with 143 doctors licensed to practice in Kenya. Most of them work at the Mediheal Diagnostic and Fertility Centre.
There are also 27 licensed foreign dentists to practice in Kenya.
Generally, Kenya has 11, 334 registered doctors; 6,394 of them are active according to the 2018 register.
There are also 1,302 registered dentists but just 683 have been retained in this year’s register.
Nairobi has the number of registered doctors and dentist at 3,072 and 856 respectively.