Kenya sends 76 more nurses to the UK

Kenya has flagged off the second batch of nurses to the United Kingdom as part of a bilateral agreement on health partnership between the two countries.

Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha and the UK Development Director Leigh Stubblefield Monday waved off 76 unemployed nurses who are set to be placed in various hospitals across Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The health workers were selected from over 700 applicants and will leave the country on August 24. They will be absorbed into the National Health Service, the publicly funded British healthcare system.

Under the Memorandum of Understanding signed in July 2021, Kenya is seeking ​​ to send 20,000 nurses to UK hospitals in a bid to improve the welfare of its migrant workers overseas.

The first batch of 19 nurses left for the UK last year after being picked from the 3, 329 nurses who had applied.

The Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) then began offering English training to nurses in order to meet the terms of the bilateral agreement.

The training will improve the English skills of nurses who make up 30 per cent of KMTC's 12,000-strong population, making them more “internationally competitive”, according to then-Health Cabinet Secretary Kagwe.

At the time, the minister said Kenya will only send those who have not yet been absorbed into the local labour market.

To be eligible for work in the UK under the program, one needs to be a Kenyan citizen and have a diploma or bachelor's degree in Nursing recognized in Kenya.

The health worker must also be registered and licensed by the Nursing Council of Kenya and hold a police clearance certificate.

Successful applicants must undergo training before leaving for the UK and also pass the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) or the Occupational English Test (OET), as well as the Computer-Based Test (CBT).

Kenya also hopes to import health workers from the UK, although the Health Ministry has yet to reveal when, or the exact number of employees the country will receive.