Kenyan doctor Hamisi Ali Juma appears to have committed suicide in Cuba where he was studying Family Medicine with 49 colleagues.
Juma was suffering from depression. However a disparity between conditions for the 100 Cuban doctors in Kenya and our people in Cuba may have made matters worse.
There may also have been a culture clash. Cuba expects its doctors to work in remote areas in basic conditions. In Kenya there is an expectation that doctors, once qualified like Juma, are entitled to a middle class lifestyle.
The Cubans here are doing an excellent job but they have been put in upmarket accommodation. The Kenyans think this is unfair.
Another gripe is that the 50 doctors in Cuba were supposed to get Sh130,000 per month, close to their normal salary, but this was slashed to Sh35,000 for the two years of the course. That must have put great strain on them.
Let the government return the allowance to Sh130,000 and that will take the pressure off the Kenya doctors and allow them to benefit from the renowned expertise of the Cuban medical system.
Quote of the day: "Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn."
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Her book Uncle Tom's Cabin was published on 20 March, 1852
