At least 39 arrested in crackdown on illegal pharmacy outlets in Nairobi

At least 39 people have been nabbed and their premises shut down in Nairobi following a joint crackdown by officials from the Pharmacy and Poisons Board and the Kenya Police Service.

The operation that started on Monday targets pharmacy outlets found to be flouted regulations.

At least 29 people were arrested on Monday in Pipeline, along Kamiti Road and part of Kahawa West while the Tuesday operation targeted informal settlements of Kawangware, Kibera, and Kangemi.

Ten people had been arrested and their premises shut by midday.

Those arrested have since been taken to Makadara Law Courts to take the plea and are expected to be charged with various offenses.

They include being in possession of part of poisons, contrary to section 26(1) of the pharmacy and poisons act, and carrying on the business of a pharmacist while not registered as a pharmacist contrary to section 19(1a) of the pharmacy and poisons act.

They are also faced with charges of carrying the business of a pharmacist on premises not registered contrary to section 23(1) of the pharmacy and poisons act.

“There are some people who have been employed in a pharmacy perhaps to sweep, they continue learning slowly by slowly and at some point, you realise that they disappear and go to informal settlements and start doing the business of pharmacists so that is our focus,” Julius Kaluai said.

Kaluai is the head Nairobi region at the PPB.

“The other focus is now the premises that are not registered you find that a premise is manned by a professional so in essence, if there is no professional who is registered to actually apply for the premises to be registered that means the premises will never get a lisence,” he added.

The board has distributed minilabs to its regional offices for random sampling and testing of medicines in the market to ensure that medicines in the Kenyan market are of good quality, safe and efficacious.

The agency has trained health workers and all the stakeholders to identify and report poor quality medicines using the PPB poor quality medicines reporting tools.

The PPB is the body mandated by Cap 244 of the laws of Kenya to ensure that all Kenyans access Quality, safe and efficacious medicines.

The PPB has called on the Judiciary and the ODPP to enhance fines and penalties to ensure that those found culpable feel the pinch of the illegality, adding that such hefty penalties will make people who want to invest in the business illegally to keep.

The board officials also have vowed to go after wholesalers who are supplying medicines to unregistered pharmacy outlets, as any wholesale dealer has a due to ascertain that whoever comes for medicines produces a license for the PPB.

“We only carry medicine as the exhibit not that the medicine is bad. You find that the medicines are good but they are being handled by the wrong person or stored in the wrong premises. We want to scale up to know who is this wholesaler who is selling these medicines to unregistered outlets.”