President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday, December 11, at State House in Nairobi signed a deal that will see Kenyan doctors go to Barbados for training.
The announcement by President Kenyatta was made after a meeting with visiting Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley.
"The agreement was a Memorandum of Understanding on Health that will allow Kenyan universities to enter into a partnership with Barbados in training medical students," the statement to media houses read.
The president stated that the two countries were aligning themselves to be the bridge between Africa and the Caribbean.
“It boggles the mind that all this time there has been no attempt to deepen the relationship between the two regions,” remarked the Barbadian leader.
She further revealed that her country was in the process of ensuring that it opens an embassy and appoint an ambassador to Kenya before the end of April 2020.
President Kenyatta noted that Kenya and Barbados would soon sign an air services agreement to lay the ground for direct flights between the two countries.
He added that issues of mutual interest would be discussed at the conference that will bring together the African Union and Caribbean Community, Regional Integration (CARICOM).
Cabinet Secretaries Monica Juma (Foreign Affairs), Ukur Yattani (National Treasury), Joe Mucheru (ICT), Peter Munya ( Trade and Industry), Amina Mohamed (Sports), Farida Karoney (Lands) and Sicily Kariuki (Health) attended the bilateral meeting.
This comes even after the doctors union complained that their colleagues who were sent to Cuba in 2018 were having it rough, as they claimed the government had abandoned them.
They alleged that the death of a Kenyan doctor, who had been sponsored by the government to study family medicine in a deal with Cuba, exposed the soft underbelly of the programme.
On Thursday, December 12 Mottley announced that Kenyan financial sector representatives had been given the green light to visit Barbados in the next two weeks to explore business opportunities in the Caribbean.
"When Kenyan banks and financial institutions get a foothold in Barbados and the Caribbean, Kenyan businesses will have familiar faces to deal with," PM Mottley claimed.
