Kenyan Gov't Sets Aside Sh1 Billion for Cuban Doctors

The National Treasury has set aside Sh1 billion to cater for wages and other allowances for the 100 Cuban doctors who arrived in the country last week.

A breakdown of Treasury report tabled to the National Assembly’s Budget and Appropriations Committee shows the medical specialists will pocket a total of Sh563 million in salaries annually.

“The committee was informed that the project is a bilateral agreement between Kenya and Cuba and has an allocation of Sh1,001,922,000,” Kimani Ichung’wa, who chairs BAC, says in a report on the budget estimates for the 2018/19 financial year.

Sh238 million of the budget will cater for training of 50 Kenyan doctors who will travel to Cuba for a two-year postgraduate course in Family Medicine.

The foreign medics landed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) on Tuesday and Thursday last week, amid a court case by Kenyan doctors opposing their hiring.

Last week, Justice Onesmus Makau issued conservatory orders stopping the State from recruiting Cuban doctors, an order that appears to have been overlooked.

The Cuban medics are currently undergoing a training at the Kenya School of Government, where they will be inducted into the Kenyan healthcare system before being deployed in all the 47 counties.