The acute shortage of specialised medical personnel in Kenya no doubt makes a big justification for the decision to import Cuban doctors.
Besides, with the decision to keep the number of expatriate doctors at maximum 100, they are unlikely to affect the local labour market.
In fact, more such doctors should be encouraged to come in and reduce the need for local people going abroad for treatment. As it is Kenyans are spending millions of shillings going for treatment in countries such as India and even South Africa and Europe.
While local doctors may oppose the move, the reality is that they are doing it for their own personal interests and not necessarily for the good of the country.
The country obviously needs many more specialised doctors and the coming in of the Cuban medical personnel can only be of great help to the country.
On the other hand, however, it is important for the State to do an assessment of all the types of medical personnel the country needs rather than keep on complaining that we do not have enough specialists.
The government should also make the remuneration and working conditions of local medical personnel better to ensure they do not feel that foreigners are coming to replace them at an even higher cost to the taxpayer.
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Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
