Nyandarua DCI seize drugs meant for different public hospitals from private facilities and pharmacies

 

The multi-agency raid was carried out on Saturday in Kinangop

A multi-agency raid was carried out on Saturday in Kinangop, which is located in Nyandarua County. The raid resulted in the seizure of pharmaceuticals as well as other health products and equipment.

In the towns of Engineer and Ndunyu Njeru, emergency services were found in homes and privately owned business locations.

 

During the search that was conducted by Nyandarua County Commissioner Amos Mariba, Governor Kiarie Badilisha, and security personnel working extremely hard to uncover the riddle of where vital medicines have been disappearing to immediately after they are purchased, one perpetrator, a pharmaceutical professional, was apprehended.

 

The perpetrator, currently detained at the Engineer Police Station, is an employee at the Pharmacy Department of the Engineer County and Referral Hospital. It is thought that the accused person is linked to a number of other individuals who are involved in the racket.

 

The governor claims that his government has spent over Ksh. 50 million on medications and other consumables in the last half a year, yet healthcare facilities are still reporting a lack of medication. This is despite the fact that the governor's office has reportedly made these purchases.

 

He said that the condition of the healthcare centres was the impetus for his participation and inquiries, which are continuous processes that, according to him, would lead to the capture of further perpetrators in the cartel.

 

The governor gave his speech in Engineer town, which is located in the Kinangop constituency. This is the same location where drug-related cargo that belonged to various healthcare facilities in Nyandarua County was found in a privately operated chemist's shop in Ndunyu Njeru's commercial hub and in a personal residence in Engineer town.

 

A medical professional working at one of the sites is suspected of stealing medications from local hospitals and then selling them on the black market to private pharmaceutical companies.

 

On this point, the governor made the observation that the theft puts the delivery of medical services to the general population in jeopardy since the pharmaceuticals that are taken from public health institutions are intended for use by the general population and are often in limited supply.

 

He stated that sick people who depend on government public hospitals for their medication feel insecure in primary care once there are no drugs available at these facilities. He also mentioned that the public's trust in the healthcare system had diminished because of the lack of drugs at the facilities.

 

One of the steps that the governor has pledged to consider taking is to scrutinise the process of issuing licences to medical officers who run private pharmacies. This will assist in the elimination of such medical officers and will also inhibit them from participating in the illegal activity of stealing pharmaceuticals.

 

Automating the distribution of medications inside the county's public health institutions in order to better monitor the flow of medications into and out of those institutions is one of the other commitments that Governor Badilisha made during his campaign.

 

His remarks were mirrored by his deputy, John Mwangi Mathara, who pointed out that if medicines were carefully controlled and reported for, then none of them would be looted from health institutions. His comments were in agreement with his boss.

 

Mathara stated that they would be collaborating with law enforcement officials to probe incidents of drug theft and guarantee that those who are held liable are brought to justice in a court of law.

 

The county commissioner, for his part, issued a call to the community, imploring them to alert the appropriate authorities to just about any questionable activities and to exercise extreme caution when it came to the use of illegal narcotics.

 

In addition to this, he made a commitment to enhancing the number of awareness efforts that focus on the perils of drug fraud and the importance of safeguarding public health facilities.