President William Ruto has made two new appointments to the government as part of the broader plan to enhance service delivery within his administration.
The Head of State, in a gazette notice dated July 4, appointed John Munyu as the Non-Executive Chairperson of the Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB).
Munyu is set to be at the helm for three years, taking over from Charles Githinji, whose appointment was revoked. Munyu has over 26 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and healthcare supply chain sectors, both in the public and private sectors.
He served as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) from January 2010 to January 2017. He has also sat on the boards of several key health institutions, including the National Quality Control Laboratory (NQCL).
After revoking Githinji’s appointment in PPB, Ruto appointed him to be the new Chairperson of the Kenya Biovax Institute for three years, replacing Mediheal Group of Hospitals founder Swarup Mishra.
Mishra was recently embroiled in an organ trafficking scandal with the hospital he owns, Mediheal, at the centre of it.
“In exercise of the powers conferred by section 6 (1) (a) of the State Corporations Act, as read together with section 51 (1) of the Interpretation and General Provisions Act, I, William Samoei Ruto, President of the Republic of Kenya and Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces, appoint, Charles Githinji (Dr.) to be the Non-Executive Chairperson of the Board of Directors, Kenya Biovax Institute Limited, for three (3) years,” the notice read.
In April this year, Ruto suspended Mishra as the Biovax chair, to allow for investigations over unethical activities involving the cases of organ trafficking.
An exposé by Deutsche Welle, German media ZDF, and ‘Der Spiegel’ international media houses, revealed that Kenya was at the center of an organ trafficking syndicate with recipients paying up to $200,000 (Ksh25.9 million) for an organ transplant.
According to the investigative piece that implicated Mishra's Mediheal, both the young yearning to make money and the old desperate for a life-saving organ were exploited in the syndicate.
DW’s investigation revealed that the international network that coordinates the operations finds local donors through paid referrals, while in some cases, the donors are allegedly flown from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan.
According to the investigations, the donors were often misled, signing documents they couldn't understand, and many were left with severe health complications post-surgery.
However, reacting to the investigations, Mediheal's Vice President said that all organ transplants in the facility were conducted within the law.
Mishra had been appointed by the President to head the BioVax Institute Board in November 2024, a role he was to serve in for the next three years.
