UPDATE: A Director of Lang’ata Hospital, Dr. Ashoke Singh Matharu, was charged with stocking unvalidated and expired laboratory reagents. The director was arraigned alongside three other hospital officials: Muffadal Ammar HassamJee (operations manager) and Herbert Cheruiyot Charles (lab technician) and Beatrice Awino (lab technician).
They were also accused of using unvalidated laboratory reagents contrary to stipulated health directives. The four suspects pleaded not guilty: Director Ashoke and Muffadal Ammar were released on a cash bail of Ksh. 100,000 shillings each.
The other two were released on Ksh. 50,000 cash bail each. The suspects will appear in court on August 5 for another mention
UPDATE: Delvine Enock Moses, a nurse at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), who was charged with making fake Covid-19 certificates was on Thursday, July 9, freed on a Ksh150,000 bail.
Delvine was arraigned at the Milimani Law Courts where he answered for three other charges, where she entered a not guilty plea. This coming with a backdrop with another Nairobi Hospital, the Lang'ata Hospital, being accused of hoodwinking Kenyans seeking Covid-19 tests.
A Covid-19 certificate was listed as a mandatory document for anyone seeking to enter the country, Transport CS James Macharia said on Wednesday, July 8.
The Lang'ata Hospital laboratory was on Wednesday, July 8, closed down indefinitely following a raid carried out by officials from the Kenya Medical Laboratory Technicians and Technologies Board (KMLTTB) accompanied by police officers, over allegations that it was carrying out fake Covid-19 tests.
According to the KMLTTB report, the officers discovered that the hospital had been charging patients Ksh5,500 to carry out the test, only to place the samples in an ambulance and allegedly rush them to KEMRI facilities for testing, as the laboratory was not equipped to handle testing.
"The reason why we have concluded to close this laboratory is that they are lying to the public that they are doing the Covid-19 testing while they are not. We have also tried to establish if there is an agreement with the public institution (KEMRI) to conduct the tests and we managed to get a document which is now a subject of investigation," KMLTTB CEO Patrick Kisabei revealed.
During the raid, the officials discovered that the management at the hospital had stocked government-labelled reagents, that are not supposed to be for sale, with the KMLTTB boss stating that the reagents were expired.
The Director of the hospital, the Chief Operations Officer, Laboratory Manager and Laboratory Technologist were all taken into custody as police launched a formal investigation following the startling findings.
On March 24, just two weeks after Kenya recorded its first-ever Covid-19 case, a doctor who was arrested alongside his employee for advertising fake Covid-19 test kits was freed by a Nairobi court on a Ksh150,000 bail.
The proprietor of Avane Clinic in Nairobi and his co-accused assistants denied making a false advert claiming to sell coronavirus test kits.
The suspects were arrested following a raid by the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council at Yaya Centre, Nairobi.
On June 17, the Ministry of Health warned of counterfeit Covid-19 testing kits that had penetrated the market and urged Kenyans to remain vigilant.
Watch the video of the latest raid at Lang'ata Hospital below:
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