MP Abraham Kirwa points out prevalence of fake medicines in Kenya: “I almost died”
Mosop Member of Parliament Abraham Kirwa has caused alarm after raising serious concerns over the quality of medicines dispensed by doctors in Kenya.
The legislator recently caused a nationwide scare after revealing that ineffective drugs in Kenya nearly cost him his life.
Nairobi News understands the politician suffered an ischemic stroke and severe congestive heart failure in August 2024 and was rushed to a Nairobi hospital.
According to his recent revelation, he hoped to get better through treatment at the Nairobi Hospital as he was attended to by top medical specialists but that was not the case.
Kirwa revealed that his heart functions continued to deteriorate despite treatment and medication at the hospital.
Kirwa’s ejection fraction, which is a key measure of heart health, dropped from 25 to 15% a critical stage where survival is highly uncertain.
He explained that it was at this point that his wife made the life-saving decision to fly him out of the country for specialised care.
Kirwa was first flown to Dubai and later to the United States and continued on the same medication but sourced from different suppliers.
The results were totally different as his health steadily improved, reinforcing his belief that substandard or ineffective medicines may have played a role in his near-fatal decline.
“I asked the doctor what really happened; why is my body reacting to your medicine but it was not reacting to their medicine. He told me, what we are giving you is the real medicine. Whatever you were taking, we don’t know what it was, but somehow it was not the real medicine,” Kirwa disclosed.
Having survived the scare, Kirwa hit the floor of the National Assembly to air his concerns barely two weeks after returning to Kenya.
In his submission, the legislator requested the government to thoroughly vet medicines dispensed to patients in Kenya, holding he almost died due to intake of fake medicines.
The lawmaker questioned how many other Kenyans might have suffered similar risks due to potential lapses in the country’s medication supply chain.
“My question remains, how many people have had the same problem that I have had? We are losing our parents, we are losing our brothers, we are losing our sisters, because that is all they have,” he posed.
His plea attracted the attention of the PSK who responded cautiously, emphasising that the MP had not launched any formal complaint.
Wairimu Mbogo, PSK president, urged Kirwa to file an official report to ensure a proper investigation, adding that it would help trace other defective medicine, if any.
“If there is a risk, can we have it formally reported so that it follows the right channel so that we figure out if this product had a problem, because I can imagine the product did not go to that hospital alone. It might have gone to many other hospitals and affected many more patients,” Mbogo said.
The same also received response from Medical Services Principal Secretary Ouma Oluga who reiterated that the matter is being taken seriously, although no evidence has yet confirmed substandard medicines in the country.
