Poisons board officials raid Murugu herbal clinic

In Summary

Some of the medicine substances were stored together with Pit Latrine Reviver(PLR) and other substances for septic waste management

Some of the buckets contain unlabelled flour like substances that had formed lumps due to moisture.

Murugu clinic in Nairobi's CBD on Monday, June 17, 2019.
Murugu clinic in Nairobi's CBD on Monday, June 17, 2019.
Image: MAGDALINE SAYA

Officials from the Pharmacy and Poisons Board on Monday raided Murugu Herbal Clinic on Moi Avenue, Nairobi.

Peter Murugu, the propreitor, was not in at the time of the raid.

The clinic claims the drugs it stocks can cure chronic illnesses within weeks.

 

However, when probed, workers were unable to explain the contents of some of the drugs stocked.

Some medicines were stored together with Pit Latrine Reviver (PLR) and other substances for septic waste management. 

Packaged in plastic bottles, the bottles have stickers which show only the expiry date.

The clinic was closed in 2015 but opened under unclear circumstances.

According to guidelines by the board, the bottles should have the manufacture date, batch number, storage conditions, the exact location of the doctor, a leaflet on how to use the drugs and the side effects.

Some of the buckets contained unlabelled flour-like substances that had formed lumps due to moisture.

The officials found dirty mixing bottles and buckets, and hundreds of empty plastic bottles, used to package the substances.

The lab in which tests on patients are normally carried out has a different licence, showing a different name XYTO Laboratory, not Murugu's name.

 

"He makes the stickers himself so that when the expiry date comes, it is easier to change them and sell the expired drugs to vulnerable customers," Valentine Mokaya from the board said.

"Some medicines should not be stored in transparent bottles. All the jerrycans with medicines do not even have labels."

According to Dr Agoro Paddy, the patients who seek services are not asked about their medical history.

"Desperate Kenyans are the most vulnerable. Patients cant even tell what these substances are, it is only him who understands them," Paddy said.

According to the officials, the conditions under which Murugu is operating don't meet standards.

All the medicines were packed in boxes and taken to Central Police Station.

The five staff who were in the office were also taken to the station and booked.They will be arraigned in court today.

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