USAID busts stolen and expired medical supplies being sold in Kenya
USAID busts stolen and expired medical supplies being sold in Kenya
Kenya is once again in the spotlight after two people were arrested in a joint crackdown on pharmacies suspected of selling stolen and expired medicines.
In a statement issued on September 14, the United States Agency for International Development’s Office of Inspector General (USAID OIG) said it had led the operation to crack down on pharmacies suspected of selling stolen and expired medicines.
The operation targeted 18 pharmaceutical premises across Kenya, resulting in two arrests, with 11 people being required to report for further investigations or court proceedings, and at least four pharmacies being shut down or sealed.
“The USAID OIG-led operation targeted 18 pharmaceutical premises across Kenya. Enforcement actions included two arrests, 11 individuals being compelled to report for further investigative or court proceedings, and the closure and/or sealing of at least four pharmacies for various illegal schemes and regulatory violations,” USAID OIG stated.
For weeks, investigators quietly tracked how U.S.-funded medical supplies were slipping out of official channels and ending up on pharmacy shelves across the country.
Their target was Kenya’s commercial pharmaceutical supply chain, the very network that is supposed to move medicine safely from warehouses to patients.
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USAID OIG did not work alone, teaming up with Kenya’s Pharmacy and Poisons Board, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.
The U.S. Embassy in Nairobi also played a key role, with its Regional Security Office offering what officials described as instrumental support throughout the operation.
Investigators say the closures followed the discovery of illegal schemes and various regulatory violations that put ordinary patients at risk.
Thousands of medical commodities were seized during the raids, among them over 2,000 tablets of co-trimoxazole antibiotics traced back to the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA).
Those tablets, meant for specific distribution channels, had somehow ended up far from where they were supposed to be.
Hundreds of other items were also pulled off shelves, including expired, defective, unregistered, and improperly distributed tablets, capsules, and diagnostic test strips, some suspected of being diverted from global health programs run by United Nations agencies, with investigators even finding signs that some of the medicine was being smuggled across Kenya’s borders entirely.
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