On 12th of April 2019, the country woke up to sad news of the abduction of two Cuban doctors who were part of the Kenya-Cuba understanding that saw a group of about 100 Cubans come to Kenya last year to help boost health service.
Reports now have it that the two who were abducted by suspected al Shabaab militants in Mandera town are alive.
Cuban Health Minister Jose Angel Porta who did not give much details on the state of the abducted surgeon Landy Rodriguez and internist Assel Herrera, argued that Cuba and Kenya was Cuba was doing everything it could to recover the kidnap victims, according to a local Cuban newspaper.
The kidnappers have so far not made any ransom demands from the State.
Efforts to secure the release of surgeon Landy Rodriguez and internist Assel Herrera represent “a complex process that requires time and discretion to succeed,” he said.
“Cuba’s government will not cease its efforts for their release,” he added.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel recently spoke by phone with his counterparts in Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, and Somalia, Abdullahi Mohamed, to coordinate efforts to recover the doctors, who appear to have been kidnapped by extremist group al-Shabaab, which operates in the border area.
The two health workers on their way to work were bundled into two cars by the militants who drove towards the Somalia border at a high speed. Their bodyguard was killed and their driver taken into custody.
There has been no claim of responsibility or public ransom demand.
The Cuban doctors are said to have requested to be housed inside the Mandera Hospital compound, not kilometres away in a house from which they needed armed escorts twice a day.
A total of eight Cuban doctors now have been withdrawn from Wajir, Garissa, Lamu and Tana River counties, two from each.