City Hospital Closed Over ‘Fake Covid-19 Tests’ [VIDEO]

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.

File image of a Covid-19 testing kit.

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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: