The Kenyan government on Tuesday said it will not negotiate with the abductors of Cuban Doctors on their ransom demand.
The government had earlier ruled out any possibility of paying a ransom to secure the release of Doctors Landy Rodriguez and Herera Correa, abducted by Somalia militia while working at the Mandera Referral Hospital in northern Kenya last month.
While addressing the media in Nairobi, Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary, Ms. Monica Juma said the government will professionally attempt to rescue the doctors without paying any sum of money for the release of the two doctors Correa and Rodriguez.
Last week, media reports revealed that Al Shabaab militants suspected of abducting the two foreign doctors were demanding 150 million shillings ($1.4 million) in ransom.
Community elders had gone to a remote village in Juba land, Somalia, where the medics are believed to be held to try and negotiate their release.
Ms. Juma said that the policy of the Kenyan government does not allow for negotiation of ransom by abductors.
“The process to secure the release of Cuban Doctors is ongoing. Why would people abduct people giving medical assistance? Even in a war situation this is not imaginable,” she said.
Kenya and Cuba are implementing a medical exchange programme in which Cuban specialist doctors are serving in the country while Kenyan doctors are in Cuba advancing their medical training.
JK/abj/APA