Kenyan doctors in Cuba will now be paid Sh144,000 stipend up from the current Sh50,000 following revelations that they are studying under hard conditions.
Health Principal Secretary Susan Mochache yesterday told MPs the money would be added to their monthly salaries of about Sh300,000, paid by county governments.
The new allowances will be effected from April, she said.
The MPs are investigating claims that the doctors who were flown to Cuba in a bilateral agreement between the two countries to train on family medicine were living "a dog’s life".
This followed claims that Hamisi Ali Juma, a Kenyan doctor in Cuba, committed suicide. Juma’s suicide has been linked to claims that the 50 doctors are living in squalor.
But while appearing before Health Committee chaired by Sabina Chege (Woman Rep, Murang'a), Ms Mochache denied that the doctors were mistreated.
She said the doctors were treated well following negotiations between the two states. Mochache told the committee her ministry had not received any complaints of mistreatment as alleged by the doctors’ union.
She said while on a trip to Cuba, State officials inspected the hostels the doctors lived in and found them satisfactory.