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A Government doctor has gone to court to oppose the recruitment of 100 Cuban medics.
Dr Samson Misango, an assistant director of medical services and consultant surgeon, has filed the suit at the High Court in Nairobi to try to scuttle the agreement reached between the national government, the 47 county governments and the government of Cuba to bring in the medical specialists from May 30.
According to Dr Misango, the Government lied to the world that Kenya had a shortage of specialised medical practitioners, yet many doctors were jobless.
“There is no evidence of the Government carrying out interviews or any survey to establish that no local doctors are available to offer the required services as opposed to giving the opportunity to foreigners,” said Misango.
He said he was acting on behalf of all Kenya medical practitioners to object not only to the Cuban doctors but the influx of foreign doctors being issued with licences on the pretext that there were no local doctors to fit the positions they were being offered.
He stated that the real reason of importing the Cuban doctors was to deny Kenyan professionals good working conditions and better salaries.
His lawyer, Kiama Wangai, argued that the Cuban doctors were not subjected to a competitive recruitment process and that this would deny the public a chance to know whether they were qualified to offer services.
“Kenyan doctors feel discriminated against because the positions the Cuban doctors are coming to occupy were not advertised, as required in law, to enable them to seek employment,” said Prof Wangai.
Misango wants the court to issue temporary orders stopping the director of immigration from issuing work permits to the 100 foreign doctors until the dispute is determined.
Wangai said the decision was arbitrary, unreasonable and procedurally unfair. The petitioner wants the court to declare that the Government's conduct in seeking to recruit the Cuban doctors without advertising the employment positions is discriminatory and a violation of local doctors' rights.
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