Davji Atellah: Private hospitals exploit foreign doctors, block Kenyan medics

KMPDU Secretary General Davji Atellah. [Screen grab]

Private hospitals are exploiting foreign doctors on low wages while excluding Kenyan medics who understand labour law, Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) has revealed.

Speaking during an interview on Spice FM on Monday, January 12, KMPDU Secretary General Davji Atellah claimed some private facilities avoid hiring Kenyan doctors  as a way to challenge illegal contracts and demand fair pay, turning professional vulnerability into a business practice that violates labour laws and International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions.

"You will notice that some employers sign contracts paying employees only a third of their wages. Those who are Kenyans are often excluded because they know their rights," said Atellah.

Over the past four years, more than 3,000 foreign general practitioners have been licensed to work in Kenya, recruited from India, Egypt and Pakistan.

Atellah noted that some receive Sh40,000 a month under contracts that breach Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) and Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC) standards.

The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) sets pay rates for doctors, but private facilities bypass the rules by employing foreign practitioners willing to accept a third of the statutory pay.

At the same time, over 4,000 Kenyan doctors remain unemployed despite the country producing between 1,000 and 1,300 graduates annually.

Immigration laws require employers to show that skills are unavailable locally before hiring foreign doctors on Class D permits, but Atellah said many facilities ignore the requirement while Kenyan doctors remain idle.

"We are graduating over 1,000 doctors every year, yet you go to a county hospital and find one doctor managing an entire ward," he said, adding, "The shortage is not because we lack doctors; it is because the government has refused to employ them."

Kenya's doctor-to-patient ratio stands at one medic for every 17,000 people, 17 times worse than the World Health Organisation (WHO) benchmark of one per 1,000.

Atellah said private hospitals refuse to offer internship placements, despite operating under the same framework as public facilities.

The government has debated a Sh10 billion annual budget for medical internships.

"Some private hospitals choose not to give graduates internship opportunities, often bypassing the law," Atellah noted.

The government posted more than 6,000 healthcare interns in July 2025 after disputes over salaries.

The 2025/2026 budget allocated Sh4.3 billion for the programme. Proposals to reduce intern pay below 2017 CBA rates were opposed by KMPDU.

"An intern is a doctor. They are the backbone of our public hospitals. Paying them less is telling them their education and service have no value.," he added.

He described delays in posting interns as a cost-saving measure that affects patients.

"The delay is a manufactured crisis. It is a deliberate attempt to save money at the expense of Kenyan lives," he observed.

The union accused the health ministry of signing agreements to end strikes without implementing them.

"The government has perfected the art of signing agreements just to end industrial action. This is not leadership. It is a culture of impunity," Atellah said.

Dialogue with the ministry has become ineffective, he added.

"We do not strike for the sake of it. We strike because dialogue has been rendered useless," Atellah said.

Atellah criticised the change from the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) to the Social Health Authority (SHA), saying it does not address human resource gaps.

"You can change the name from NHIF to SHA, and you can automate all the systems, but a computer will not treat a patient in a village in Turkana," he said, adding, "You need motivated doctors for that."

"Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Kenya is currently a shell because the government is obsessed with the 'hardware' of health—the buildings and the kits—while completely ignoring the 'software,' which is the human resource," he observed.

Career stagnation, he noted, is driving doctors out of the public sector, with more than half of trained Kenyan doctors now working abroad.

Kenya loses an average of 4,000 doctors and nurses annually to the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia.

"We are training doctors for export. When someone stays in one job group for 12 years, you are telling them to leave."

Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale announced on January 7 that licences for foreign general practitioners, medical officers and dentists will no longer be renewed to protect local doctors, except in mission and faith-based hospitals where services in remote areas remain.

Duale said that over 200 licences held by foreign doctors had already been revoked as part of this ongoing exercise.