The government on Friday signed an agreement with the Cuban government on the enrollment of the Cuban doctors to the Kenyan Medical field.
The Cuban doctors are set to earn monthly salaries of up Ksh882,180 alongside other perks.
According to the Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki, the agreement signed puts the medics in Job Group S.
[caption caption="CS Sicily Kariuki signing the deal"]
[/caption]
"The doctors are coming in as specialists and have been absorbed into the medical service at Job Group S which caters for specialists," the CS stated.
The new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) 2017 signed between the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentist Union (KMPDU) and the government indicates that medics in Job Group S are entitled to a minimum salary of Ksh786,810 and a maximum of Ksh882,180.
The doctors are set to get furnished homes, paid utilities, transport from both national and county governments and air tickets during their annual leave.
Kirinyaga County Governor and vice chair of the Council of Governors Anne Waiguru has in the past defended the hiring of the Cuban Doctors indicating that they will be offering specialist services and were not a substitute to the local doctors.
KMPDU through the Secretary-General Ouma Oluga has opposed plans to employ the Cuban doctors indicating that this will deny employment to the many unemployed local doctors.
Oluga has further expressed concern that the foreign medics are getting a better deal than the one local doctors were given in the 2017 CBA.
"According to the terms contained in the CBA, our specialist doctors should have been placed in Job Group S and T, but they have been put in M, N, and P," Oluga indicated.
Doctors in Job Group T on the other hand are entitled to a minimum salary of Ksh852,180 and a maximum of Ksh946,000.
Those in Job Groups M, N, and P are entitled to a minimum salary of Ksh129,590, Ksh140,190, and Ksh189,527 and a maximum of Ksh162,840, Ksh189,290, and Ksh261,894 respectively.
[caption caption="KMPDU Secretary-General Ouma Oluga"]
[/caption]
"This is quite discriminative and grossly unfair to our medics," he protested.
