A critical shortage of healthcare professionals is emerging as one of the most significant challenges facing health systems globally.
According to the McKinsey Health Institute, nearly 60% of the global population, about 4.5 billion people, still lack access to essential health services like vaccinations, safe maternal care, infectious disease treatment, and management of chronic conditions.
The fallout ranges from long delays in care, such as extended wait times for surgeries, to losses like maternal and newborn deaths due to a lack of skilled professionals. Moreover, a global healthcare worker shortage of at least ten million is expected by 2030.
Healthcare workers shortage in Africa
Africa, which is home to 17% of the world’s population, accounts for 52% of the global shortage of health workers, according to the same study.
Annually, thousands graduate from medical schools and training colleges across the continent. Yet, unemployment among trained healthcare professionals remains high.
And where jobs exist, working conditions are poor, pay is delayed, and facilities are under-resourced. What results is a weird paradox—too many trained but idle, and too few employed and serving.
Bringing It Closer Home: Kenya in the Eye of the Storm
Here in Kenya, that paradox is painfully clear. Yes, we’ve made progress in building new hospitals, equipping them, and enrolling more students in medical colleges.
A report by Kenya Health Labour Market Analysis (2023) shows that the country has doubled its health workforce over the past decade.
However, while the total number of health professionals is growing, their distribution remains far from equal. If you walk into many public hospitals today, you’ll find long queues, overworked staff, and sometimes no doctor at all.
According to the World Health Organisation, countries need at least 23 health workers per 10,000 people to deliver essential services. Kenya has just 15.6 registered health professionals per 10,000 people—and only about 8 of those are working in public facilities.
Urban counties like Nairobi and Kiambu enjoy relatively high health worker density. But in remote and historically marginalised areas such as Mandera, Wajir, and Turkana, there are still only a handful of trained personnel per 10,000 residents. In these counties, it’s not uncommon for one nurse to serve hundreds—or even thousands—of patients over vast areas.
How the Gap Is Widening
The Health Labour Market Analysis showed that Kenya needed 254,000 health workers at the time, but we were already short by around 60,000. Fast-forward to 2030, and the shortage could widen to 114,000. By 2035, we will need 476,000 health workers to meet Universal Health Coverage goals.
The Ministry of Health’s 2023 Health Facility Census painted a grim picture. Of the 12,000 facilities surveyed, 93% couldn’t provide basic outpatient services.
For maternity care, 84% lacked essential equipment. Only 2,304 critical care beds exist in public facilities, and 68% have no oxygen delivery equipment.
This, coupled with the shortage of workers, is already costing lives. People in rural counties wait weeks to see a doctor. Some travel hundreds of kilometres to access maternity or emergency care.
Training but not hiring
The 2023 Labour Market Analysis highlights a familiar tension: even as Kenya trains more health workers, the country struggles to absorb them into the system fast enough.
For the 2022/23 academic year, Kenya Medical Training College produced 22,681 middle-level graduates, a remarkable 37.5% jump, while total trainees reached 26,830, up 15.2%.
In the FY 2025/26, the health sector was allocated KSh 138.1 billion, an increase from KSh 127 billion the previous year. Out of this, KSh4.3 billion is for medical interns, KSh3.2 billion for community health promoters, KSh303 million for training health personnel, and KSh8.9 billion for Kenya Medical Training Colleges.
Despite this growth, funding constraints, rigid recruitment processes, and county-level administrative hurdles slow down employment.
At the national level, efforts have been made to improve workforce planning and forecasting, but gaps persist. And although counties are now responsible for hiring and deploying healthcare personnel, not all have the resources or political will to prioritise health in their budget.
Brain Drain & Burnout
How will the policies put in place matter if the people trained or supported have no jobs to report to, or worse, are forced to leave the country to find work?
Nearly one million workers, including doctors and nurses, have left via formal labour-export schemes. While their remittances support families, they also cripple public institutions.
Intern doctors have gone unpaid for months, prompting one of the longest medical strikes in Kenyan history—a 100-day protest in 2017 and repeated walkouts over poor pay and working conditions.
Solutions that Might Deliver
Despite its deep-rooted challenges, including a critical shortage of healthcare workers, Kenya was, in 2025, ranked by Statista as having the second-highest healthcare index in Africa, scoring 62 points, just behind South Africa’s 63.8.
That ranking, while seemingly positive, is less a reflection of Kenya’s health system being in great shape and more an indicator of just how much the rest of the continent is also struggling.
This reality only deepens the urgency to confront the health workforce shortage. An issue that cannot be fixed by the healthcare sector alone. Closing the gap will require deliberate action from governments, private investors, and cross-sector innovators. Without meaningful investment, better planning, and more equitable distribution of healthcare resources, no country in the region will be able to deliver truly inclusive care.
According to the McKinsey Health Institute, effectively addressing the global health worker shortage could prevent up to 189 million years of life lost to disease and disability, about 7% of the total disease burden. For Africa, this isn’t just a development statistic. It’s the difference between communities thriving and barely surviving.
To overcome the workforce crisis, Kenya and the rest of Africa need a bold, multi-pronged plan:
- Increase health staffing budgets to match WHO recommendations.
- Mitigate brain drain through bilateral agreements, bonded training, and domestic incentives.
- Boost rural retention via hardship allowances, housing support, and career progression opportunities.
- Improve working conditions: timely salaries, mental health support, and structured internship programs can ease burnout.
- Invest in facilities to ensure staff have the tools, equipment, ambulances, and ICU beds to do their jobs.
