The Kenyan government has extended a contract for 100 Cuban doctors who are currently working in different parts of the country.
Health CS Mutahi Kagwe in a statement to the Council of Governors on Monday said that the ministry has renewed contracts for the lot following their two-year lapse.
“This is to notify you that the ministry has renewed the bilateral agreement between Kenya and the Republic of Cuba on the provision of specialized healthcare services, through the deployment of Cuban doctors. The continued services of the doctors in the counties is therefore assured,” Kagwe said in the letter addressed to CoG chair Wycliffe Oparanya.
Under the renewed contract, the government will meet all agreed clauses in the Memorandum of Understanding signed in May 2018.
The Ministry of Health, which is a national government function pays the salaries of the Cuban doctors, while respective counties where they work provide transport, accommodation and any other expense bordering on their line of work.
Further, salary for specialist doctors is paid by every 10th day of the month and the county pays for their annual leave travel to Cuba and back.
After his re-election, President Uhuru Kenyatta committed to improving healthcare in the country.
Some of the Cuban specialists in Kenya include radiologists, surgeons, orthopedists, neurologists, and nephrologists.
Kenya exported 50 of her doctors to Cuba to further their studies in their preferred area of speciality.
However, the fate of two Cuban doctors abducted by Al-Shabaab militants in Mandera and moved to Somali, doctors Assel Herrera and Landy Rodriguez remain in captivity a year later.
