Embu County sheds light on expired drugs

The County Government of Embu has come out to shed light on the puzzle of Ksh 7.9 million worth of expired drugs at Embu Level Five Hospital.

The devolved unit has come under fire following a report by Auditor General on County Revenue Fund for the Year Ended 30th June that revealed the expiry of drugs among other financial malpractices.

While exonerating the county from blame, County Finance and Economic Planning CECM Prof. Joe Kamaria said the drugs expired in 2012 before the current Governor Cecily Mbarire led administration took over office.

“The mentioned expired pharmaceuticals stretch back to 2017 up to 2022 and it is true they have expired but I want to state clearly that they expired before her Excellency took over,” he said.

Speaking at the hospital on Tuesday morning during an inspection tour of the store, the county treasury head stated that no drugs procured in the reign of the current governor have expired.

He said the issue of expired drugs has been recurring in every audit report since 2012 since they have not put in place asset disposal mechanisms.

Consequently, Kamaria said they in September last started the process of disposing the drugs by putting together a committee to oversee the process.

“I want to confirm that the process is ongoing and hopefully will be completed in the next six months,” the CEC said.

He attributed the expiration to the Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdowns that hampered distribution and operations in all the facilities across the county.

“When Covid-19 hit, it led to a decline in the operations in the facilities that meant that there was low usage of the drugs in store,” he said.