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Unemployment crisis looms in Kenya amid medical doctors’ strike
The ongoing doctors’ strike in Kenya has not only brought medical services to a standstill but also shed light on a deeper issue – the staggering unemployment rate among medical graduates.
With approximately 4,000 public sector doctors participating in the strike, the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists Dentists Union (KMPDU) revealed that this represents nearly half of the country’s registered doctors, Semafor reports.
Despite the critical shortage of healthcare professionals in public hospitals, thousands of qualified doctors are struggling to find employment due to budget constraints within the government.
Faced with limited resources to address the issue, the Ministry of Health has made a plea for 4.9 billion Kenyan shillings ($37.7 million) from the treasury to address the issue. Again, despite regulations mandating timely placement of medical interns post-graduation, bureaucratic obstacles, and funding shortages have left many graduates in limbo, unable to kickstart their medical careers.
Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha has said, “The reason why we are not able to post interns immediately is that we must ensure that wherever they are going, they can get the training that they need to finish and get their licenses. For that training to be available, we need to have these internship centers adequately equipped,” she was quoted by Capital News.
Despite commitments to prioritise healthcare spending, the country’s investment in this critical sector falls far short of international standards recommended by the World Health Organization. In the 2023–24 budget statement, the Health Ministry received an allocation of Sh141.2 billion (approximately $1 million), down from Sh146.8 billion (approximately $1.1 million) in the 2022–23 financial year, the Star reported.
