Emerging details have implicated Kenyan cancer patients in an ongoing illegal trade where they engage in cancer drug trade after acquiring it from abroad, specifically India.
Details indicate that once there for treatment purposes, the Kenyans seal deals with Indian pharmaceutical dealers since they are cheap there, and sell them at a profit back home.
According to Dr Wairimu Mbogo, head of operations at the Meraky Healthcare Limited, they pass the drugs as their prescriptions in briefcases into Kenya for sale.
"There are patients who may have gone to India for treatment but saw an opportunity to start selling drugs which they ferry in their suitcases," says Mbogo, also a pharmacist during an interview with a local daily on Thursday.
She adds that the trade is soaring thanks to the many cancer patients who cannot manage to travel to India for medication, who now see the smuggled drugs as a "cheaper option".
“Patients have realised that the medicines are cheaper in India, so some of them use those with connections there to procure the drugs for them,” she maintains.
However, she warns that the same goes against the law, further cautioning that the manner in which they are transported, in briefcases, makes them more dangerous.