Ebola volunteers yet to be paid two months later

Kenyan medics, who volunteered to go to West Africa to boost international efforts in fighting Ebola, are yet to be paid and are even struggling to feed themselves, The Standard can report.

The 170 health workers left in January for Sierra Leone and Liberia where they were expected to stay for six months as part of the African Union mission to contain the disease.

The medics now say they have not received their feeding allowance since the start of the month further worsening their situation. Some are now begging to be brought back home.

“We have been turned into beggars in a foreign land,” one of the medics told The Standard.

All those whom this writer interviewed requested that their names not to be revealed because their contracts bar them from speaking to the media. They claimed that they have not received their salaries since they arrived.

“We are suffering because we do not have money for food or even to buy necessities,” one of the volunteers said.

The volunteers – including nurses, doctors and laboratory technicians – are supposed to be paid a monthly stipend of between $3,000 (Sh270,000) and $5,000 (Sh450,000), depending on their roles and experience.

When contacted, the head of the Kenyan mission in West Africa referred us to the Ministry of Health’s International Health Relations boss Lydia Masinde, who is responsible for any public Kenyan medical personnel on official assignment outside the country.

“The Director of Medical Services is the officer responsible for addressing such issues,” Dr Masinde said when contacted.

However, by the time of publishing this story Medical Services Director Nicholas Muraguri had not responded to our queries.