‪State Admits Cuban Doctors Have Failed As They Resort To Local Doctors For Help‬

Earlier in the year, Gunmen kidnapped two of the Cuban doctors in northeastern Kenya and whisked them to Somalia and demanded $1.5 million (1.35 million euros) for their release, police and government sources said. Not so much is in public about their status.

The pair a general practitioner and a surgeon were abducted on April 12 by suspected Al-Shabaab jihadis in Mandera, near the border with Somalia.

One of two police officers escorting the doctors to work was shot dead by the attackers, who sped off toward Somalia with their captives, officials said.

While KMPDU opposed the move to absorb foreign doctors in Kenya instead advising the government to employ the many jobless doctors, months later, the government seem to have come to their senses.

In a letter from the ministry of health circulated to the Council Of Governors, the PS Susan Mochache admits that the Cuban model didn’t work and that the Cuban doctors have been overwhelmed to address the existing health challenges.

Letter from MoH obtained by Kenya Insights.

In her letter to the COG Chairman, the CoG had requested for the facilitation that the local doctors be incorporated to help the overwhelmed Cuban doctors. This only going to show how the local doctors are important in the ecosystem and how knee jerk actions can’t address long underlying public health issues.