The Kenya Pharmacy and Poisons Board (KPPB) has accused the Judiciary of being lenient towards those arrested while operating illegal pharmaceutical outlets.
Addressing the media at KPPB’s South Rift office in Nakuru on Thursday after a week's crackdown in the region, the team led by senior drugs inspector for Nairobi region Julius Kaluai while revealing that 51 arrests have been made so far and arraigned, called on Judiciary to help the Board in the fight against illegal pharmaceuticals and chemists.
PPB has also called on members of the public to cooperate with the inspectors during the crackdown.
While citing an incident where some of the Board’ inspectors were threatened by the public, Kaluai condemned such reminding members of the public that the crackdown is for the good of the society.
“I don’t know whether it is a tradition in some regions that the judges at time s are very lenient. But our appeal to the judiciary is that they work closely with us to end the vices and ensure a healthy society” said Kaluai.
According to Kaluai, they will ensure no pharmacy or chemist is operating illegally in the country and that those arrested face full force of the law.
The Board reiterated that the premises whose owners have been arrested will remain shut down.
“As soon as you arrest a person it means the premise is illegal, therefore, it will remain closed,” he said.
The Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB) has directed all pharmacists and chemists to display registration details in their outlets.
The board has also directed them to display a toll-free SMS code 21031 that Kenyans can use to verity the legality of the premises on the windows of the outlets.
As part of the ongoing crackdown on illegal medicine outlets, PPB now wants premises licenses and those of attending personnel displayed.
According to the Board, the displayed code will enable any customer to ascertain the legitimacy of the premise, as the board has records of all outlets.
KPPB had on May 15, launched a 90-day countrywide crackdown on unregistered pharmacies in an attempt to promote better health care and weed out all the quacks in the industry.