By Patricia Mollyne Mataga
Police officers in Nairobi City County on Friday arrested a man suspected to be a fake medical officer.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in a statement said the man identified as James Waweru Njenga had opened a medical clinic at Nairobi’s Kayole Phase 1 while purporting to be a qualified medical officer thereby obtaining money from unsuspecting patients is behind bars.
The 45-year-old was arrested at the medical clinic that police said was not registered following a joint operation that included officers from the National Police Service and those from the Pharmacy and Poisons Board.
They acted on a complaint from a patient.
“James Waweru Njenga, 45, was arrested at his unregistered medical facility christened Axis Medical Clinic & Lab Services, by a team of detectives and officers from the Pharmacy and Poisons Board who were investigating a complaint from an affected patient,” DCI said in part of the statement.
Police say a 31-year-old victim filed a complaint claiming that between March 1 and March 27, 2024, the suspect charged him over Sh60,000 for sample tests allegedly at laboratories in some of the country’s renowned medical facilities, before “diagnosing” him with a liver disorder.
But despite being given a prescription, the patient told the police that his condition deteriorated forcing him to seek the opinion of another specialist at the Nairobi West Hospital. Laboratory tests run at the Hospital pointed to the man having no liver issues.
“Launching investigations, detectives uncovered that the medical reports issued to the patient by the quack purporting to be lab results from German Medical Centre, Jubaland Imaging Centre and Mater Hospital were all fake and falsified,” the police said.
Further, the Pharmacy and Poisons Board confirmed that the suspect neither had any proof of registration as a medical officer nor held a business registration certificate.
The suspect was taken away by Kamukunji Police Station. He is expected to be arraigned in court on Monday, facing multiple charges among them running an unregistered medical facility and operating a medical clinic without requisite qualifications.
