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Kenya to address brain drain - 2009-07-27

Date: 
Monday, 2009, July 27
Location: 
Source: 
KBC

Caption: Odinga decried the losses the country is incurring through migration of intellectuals and professionals to greener pastures abroad.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Monday called on professionals trained locally to commit a fraction of their careers to serving the country after training before they go abroad for greener pastures if they must.

The PM said the government is not opposed to Kenyans seeking greener pastures abroad saying the immigrants contribute to the economy through remittances but there should be a balance.

"We need some amount of service from our citizens to our country after we have trained them. We need to strike a balance that ensure our services do not suffer and that we pay back to our country after it has trained us before we can fly abroad for greener pastures. That is not asking for too much," the PM said.

Odinga decried the losses the country is incurring through migration of intellectuals and professionals to greener pastures abroad.

He attributed the brain drain to lack of high caliber research institutions that would enable intellectuals keep abreast with the latest developments in their fields.

He said the government has spelt out measures to respond to this scenario in its Vision 2030, but called for a strong involvement of the private sector to stem the tide migrations to the developed world.

Odinga was speaking when he met His Highness the Aga Khan, who called on him.

The premier said that the government is keen to make Kenya the hub for medical facilities, including hospitals and healthcare providers for the region. "

The government spends a lot of money to train just one doctor. Yet those doctors leave almost immediately for greener pastures abroad, leaving us exposed. It is a trend we must reverse," the PM said.

"A good number of the intellectuals leaving the country are not driven by desire for money. Many are disappointed by the lack of research facilities that could enable them further their knowledge, be at par with their counterparts abroad and gain intellectual satisfaction from their work," he added.

Research facilities

He said the government is addressing the problem by sourcing funds for the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Technology.

The PM said that because of absence of adequate research facilities, Kenya currently spends a lot of money taking patients abroad, where in some cases they are treated by Kenyans who fled to greener pastures.

He said the few facilities Kenya has still remain critical in providing health services to people from the Eastern Africa region.

The Aga Khan, who is in the country for a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Aga Khan University, said he is keen to help Kenya attain higher standards in provision of healthcare and training of health workers.

He said his network is keen to put up an institution for training of more doctors at nurses at graduate and post graduate level and provide research facilities to keep the professionals around.

The Aga Khan said that currently, Kenya and India are the highest suppliers of doctors and nurses to the developed world, a situation he said is unfortunate.

"We must provide sufficient reasons to make the doctors see the need to remain here. We need institutions with best practises. We suffer brain drain because we have no institutions that thrive on best practices" he observed

Author: 
PMPS


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