Tanzanian medical association faults move to hire it's 500 doctors by Kenyan government.

The Tanzania Medical Association has faulted Kenya and Tanzanian governments over their plan to have 500 doctors from Tanzania to be hired by the government of Kenya a few days after the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union called off their strike.

The association's president-elect Elisha Otisa on Monday night while speaking to KTN News on phone blamed the two governments of moving on with plans to hire the doctors without having consulted them.

"It is unfortunate that the two governments have moved on with the plan without consulting us yet the doctors are members of our association, " said Dr. Otisa.

He added that they had moved to request the Tanzanian government to halt the process over security concerns for their association's members set to move to Kenya and to allow proper consultation before the move is effected.

He said the country had a more severe shortage of doctors compared to Kenya given that in the country’s doctor-patient ratio stands at one 1:28,000 while that of Kenya stands at 1:17,000.

He affirmed that the association is not seeking to confront the government on the matter but was hopeful their request to tentatively halt the hiring will be considered given they raised genuine concerns over the situation in the health sector in Kenya.

Tanzania opposition party CHADEMA leaders have opposed the move saying it is wrong given the dire need for more doctors in the country.

Presidential aspirant Philip Murgor who had been on the legal lead during the doctors' strike has said the Kenyan Government is failing to act in good faith as Makueni Senator Mutula Junior who had also been at the center of the KMPDU negotiations said there are more unemployed qualified doctors in Kenya.

Senator Mutula said just as in Tanzania, Kenya had stopped employing more medical practitioners and the two countries have a shortage of doctors.

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