THE Employment and Labour Relations Court of Kenya
has prohibited the hiring of foreign doctors by the Kenyan government
pending the hearing of an application challenging employment of 500
medics from Tanzania.
Issuing
the order on Thursday, Justice Nelson Abuodha granted five applicants
an interim injunction blocking the Kenyan Ministry of Health or the
Council of Governors (CoG) from employing the Tanzanian doctors.
Reached for comment, the Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Ummy Mwalimu, said the Tanzanian government was yet to receive official communication from Kenya on the stoppage order.
Mwalimu said the government continues to review application letters from more than 500 Tanzanian doctors who have shown a willingness to work in Kenya.
“At the end of the day, it’s the government of Kenya which has the final decision because they came to us with the demand for doctors,” the minister said.
The petitioners – Dr Kahindi Menza, Dr Yunas Mohamed, Dr Lillian Magara, Dr Victor Mutisya and Dr Aldrin Gulenywa – challenged the move to employ foreign doctors arguing that there are trained medical practitioners in Kenya who are yet to be employed.
In the application filed on Tuesday, the five have sued Kenya's Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu, CoG Chairperson Peter Munya, the Public Service Commission (PSC) and the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentist Union (KMPDU) for failing to act in the best interest of Kenyan doctors.
The practitioners also want the court to compel the Kenyan government to absorb about 1,400 medical practitioners said to be jobless despite meeting the requisite qualifications to practice medicine in the country.
Justice Abuodha ordered the petitioners to file and serve a substantive application within 21 days pending the mentioning of the matter in court on April 19 for further directions, hearing and disposal.
On March 19, Kenyan State House Spokesperson Manoah Esipisu said the government would deploy 500 doctors from neighbouring Tanzania in public hospitals across the country after President John Magufuli approved a request by Kenya’s Health Ministry.
CS Mailu had at the time said Kenya was facing a shortage of doctors putting the doctor-patient ratio at 1:6,000.
Mailu downplayed claims that Tanzanian doctors were not qualified to work in Kenya saying medics in any of the five East African Community (EAC) member states were qualified to work in Kenya.
Reached for comment, the Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Ummy Mwalimu, said the Tanzanian government was yet to receive official communication from Kenya on the stoppage order.
Mwalimu said the government continues to review application letters from more than 500 Tanzanian doctors who have shown a willingness to work in Kenya.
“At the end of the day, it’s the government of Kenya which has the final decision because they came to us with the demand for doctors,” the minister said.
The petitioners – Dr Kahindi Menza, Dr Yunas Mohamed, Dr Lillian Magara, Dr Victor Mutisya and Dr Aldrin Gulenywa – challenged the move to employ foreign doctors arguing that there are trained medical practitioners in Kenya who are yet to be employed.
In the application filed on Tuesday, the five have sued Kenya's Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu, CoG Chairperson Peter Munya, the Public Service Commission (PSC) and the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentist Union (KMPDU) for failing to act in the best interest of Kenyan doctors.
The practitioners also want the court to compel the Kenyan government to absorb about 1,400 medical practitioners said to be jobless despite meeting the requisite qualifications to practice medicine in the country.
Justice Abuodha ordered the petitioners to file and serve a substantive application within 21 days pending the mentioning of the matter in court on April 19 for further directions, hearing and disposal.
On March 19, Kenyan State House Spokesperson Manoah Esipisu said the government would deploy 500 doctors from neighbouring Tanzania in public hospitals across the country after President John Magufuli approved a request by Kenya’s Health Ministry.
CS Mailu had at the time said Kenya was facing a shortage of doctors putting the doctor-patient ratio at 1:6,000.
Mailu downplayed claims that Tanzanian doctors were not qualified to work in Kenya saying medics in any of the five East African Community (EAC) member states were qualified to work in Kenya.
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