Young doctors die as once-coveted career turns sour

 KMPDU Secretary General Davji Atella during a press briefing on November 27, 2024. [ Collins Oduor, Standard]

Seven doctors have died in the last two months, five of them died by suicide, according to the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU).

The union’s Secretary-General, Davji Atellah, says some of the doctors are frustrated due to delayed salaries - with some doctors reporting payment delays of up to five months -  excessive work hours without overtime compensation, and a complete disregard for established collective bargaining agreements.

“We have lost five doctors in the last two months due to work-stress hardships and lack of responsive insurance cover,” Atellah said in an earlier statement.

Twenty-seven-year-old Dr.Desree Moraa, a medical intern based at the  Gatundu Level 5 Hospital died by suicide in September. It was later revealed that Moraa had worked a 36-hour straight shift befre being found dead on her balcony. Her death attributed to immense work pressure and personal struggles, a suicide note grimly affirming this. 

Similarly, 29-year-old Dr Francis Njuki, a pharmacist at Thika level 5 Hospital was discovered dead late last month. He had been working at the facility since August 2024 without a salary.

According to police reports, the body of Francis Njuki was discovered on November 25th. He also left behind a depressing letter that listed his personal hardships and pain.

Dr Timothy Riungu, 35, a paediatrician at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) is another victim. For nearly a month, Dr Riungu, a surgical registrar in the Department of Surgery at KNH, had been on duty round-the-clock. Besides working for long hours, Dr Riungu had not taken leave for the two years he had been working at the facility as a Master’s student under a University of Nairobi programme. This long stretch without a break was an extension from another two-year stint at Meru, where he was stationed before relocating to Nairobi for the academic programme. A postmortem revealed that he died of hypoglycemia, also known as low blood sugar, which occurs when the blood sugar level of a person drops below normal.

Others include Dr Khadija Abdulnassir, a Registrar in Kilifi County, Dr Victor Bosire a Locum medical officer from Kisii and Dr Vincent Nyambunde, whose deaths leave a gory footnote  for a long, melancholic and shattering tale of a broken systemic work routine marked by unheard distress.

Union officials blame the state for the deaths of the young doctors, noting that the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) programme will not take off if the well-being of healthcare workers is not properly looked into.

“As a Union, we find these inhumane acts by a government that does not care about its health workers unacceptable,” he avers.

It beats logic, that the once alluring profession that most star-performing students once dreamt of, has now turned deadly