NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 8 – The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) has announced a comprehensive nationwide enforcement campaign to ensure all public and private health facilities fully comply with labor and professional standards, following a directive by Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale on the licensing and employment of foreign health practitioners.
Over the past four years, more than 3,000 foreign general practitioners have been licensed to practice in Kenya.
KMPDU stressed that while international skills exchange is valuable, many foreign doctors have been recruited primarily as an exploitable workforce, often paid below the standards set by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) and Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs).
“This is a pivotal moment. We will no longer tolerate the systematic undercutting of professional fees and labor standards in the name of profit,” KMPDU Secretary General Davji Atellah, stated.
“Private hospitals have institutionalized modern-day slavery by paying substandard wages and bypassing lawful employment procedures,” he said.
Such practices, he added, violate ILO conventions on equal pay and fair treatment for skilled labor across borders.
He also warned that underpaying and mistreating doctors erodes medical ethics, compromises patient safety, and contributes to unethical practices, including recent organ transplant scandals.
Going forward he announced a nationwide enforcement campaign to ensure compliance by both public and private health facilities.
“All doctors, foreign or local, must now be employed under dignified, transparent, and lawful contracts. Non-compliant facilities will face industrial and legal action,” he stated.
