Kenyan Trainee Doctors’ Suicides Linked to Work Stress and Unpaid Wages

Last week, a village in Kenya’s Rift Valley was filled with sorrow as numerous medical interns, alongside other attendees, gathered for the funeral of a colleague who had died by suicide. During the service, various speakers expressed grief over the death of Francis Njuki, a 29-year-old trainee pharmacist. His family informed the BBC that he had experienced profound exhaustion and frustration due to the government’s failure to pay his salary since his internship began in August. Dr Davji Atellah, the secretary of the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU), stated that Njuki’s death marks the fifth suicide among medical professionals in Kenya within the past two months, attributing these deaths to “work-stress hardships and lack of responsive insurance cover.” He also noted that the union had never previously documented such occurrences. The KMPDU also reported five suicide attempts among its members this year. Comprehensive national statistics on suicides in Kenya for this year are not yet accessible. Last month, Njuki died by suicide while undertaking his internship at a public hospital located in Thika town, close to the capital city, Nairobi. His uncle, Tirus Njuki, informed the BBC that Francis had experienced hallucinations and depression stemming from sleep deprivation. The uncle further stated, “In his suicide note he mentioned that the four-month salary delay was among issues that aggravated his mental illness, pushing him to end his life.”