Union supports crackdown on foreign medical practitioners

KMPDU Secretary General Davji Atellah addresses a press briefing on foreign doctors practising in Kenya, in Nairobi, on January 8, 2026. [Edward Kiplimo,Standard]

The Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU) has supported plan to revoke the licences of foreign doctors practising in Kenya.

They cite widespread exploitation by employing hospitals, unlawful implementation of international labour laws, and rising unemployment among Kenyan doctors.

KMPDU Secretary-General Davji Atella said the directive was a necessary step to protect local health workers and restore fairness and accountability in Kenya’s healthcare labour system.

Dr Atella said the union was giving its “absolute and unwavering support” to Health Cabinet Secretary’s decision to revoke licences for foreign doctors whose employment violates Kenyan labour, immigration and professional laws.

“For far too long, the medical profession in Kenya has been treated as a frontier for profiteering at the expense of human dignity, professional ethics and lawful labour standards,” Dr Atella said. “Today, we declare unequivocally that the era of treating doctors as cheap, disposable labour is over.”

According to KMPDU, more than 3,000 foreign general practitioners have been licensed to practise in Kenya over the past four years, many of them recruited not to fill critical skills gaps but to serve as a vulnerable workforce exploited by some private hospitals.

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The union accused several facilities of paying foreign doctors wages below Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) rates and negotiated collective bargaining agreements, practices it described as “modern-day slavery” and a violation of International Labour Organisation conventions on equal pay and fair treatment.

Dr Atella warned that such exploitation undermines medical ethics and compromises patient safety, linking it to recent scandals in the health sector, including the controversial organ transplant cases.

“Institutions that dehumanise doctors inevitably extend the same disregard to patients, placing lives at risk and tarnishing Kenya’s healthcare reputation,” he said.

KMPDU further accused hospitals of abusing immigration laws by recruiting foreign doctors without demonstrating that the required skills are unavailable locally, as required for Class D work permits. This, the union said, has occurred even as thousands of Kenyan doctors remain unemployed or underemployed.

The union also announced a nationwide enforcement campaign, in collaboration with the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC), to ensure full compliance with gazetted locum rates and employment standards in both public and private facilities.

Private hospitals, however, urged the government to avoid a blanket ban on foreign medical practitioners, warning it could disrupt specialised care and continuity of treatment for Kenyan patients.

The Rural and Urban Private Hospitals Association of Kenya (Rupha), which represents more than 350 private hospitals, said registration of foreign doctors should be aligned with existing regulations on overseas treatment, particularly in areas where Kenya lacks sufficient medical expertise. “We agree that regulation is necessary. But this is a situation where we should not use a mallet to kill a mosquito,” said Brain Lishenga the Rupha national chairman.