'I almost died': MP's harrowing brush with death raises questions about medicines in Kenya
What you need to know:
- Kenyan MP Abraham Kirwa recounts a terrifying medical ordeal in Nairobi, worsened by an alleged refusal to administer life-saving treatment and suspected substandard drugs.
- His condition improved only after evacuation to Dubai and the US, raising troubling questions about medication quality and medical negligence in Kenya.
- After suffering a near-fatal heart attack, he says his condition deteriorated under Kenyan treatment but rapidly improved abroad. Foreign doctors told him they were giving him “real medicine”, prompting investigations into possible counterfeit drugs and failures within Kenya’s healthcare system.
On the morning of August 3 last year, Mosop Member of Parliament Abraham Kirwa woke up a healthy man. It was his birthday. He drove to the airport to pick up his wife, then headed for his usual Saturday radio programme.
By nightfall, he was fighting for his life in a hospital bed—the beginning of a 15-month medical nightmare that would take him across three continents and raise troubling questions about the medications Kenyans trust with their lives. Midway through his radio show that afternoon, Mr Kirwa's vision had begun to fail. “I asked my wife for water, but I couldn't even see where she was standing. I knew something was wrong," he recalls.
He was rushed to Nairobi Hospital, where his wife, familiar with American medical protocols, immediately recognised the symptoms. She pleaded with doctors to administer TPA, a clot-busting drug used worldwide to halt heart attacks and strokes when given within the critical first hours. The doctor on duty refused.
A family physician also urged the medical team to administer the drug. Still, the answer was no. Hours later, the MP says, they were told to go home. “We stayed until 2am. They told me to go home at two o'clock. My wife asked them, 'How can I take him home? He has never been sick,'" Mr Kirwa recounts.
His wife insisted on a blood test. It was only when results revealed dangerously elevated enzyme levels—markers of heart damage—that the hospital hurriedly admitted him to the intensive care unit. Mr Kirwa would spend the next 18 days there, undergoing therapy and receiving medication he believed was nursing him back to health. Instead, his heart was failing.
“The doctor tracking my heart function noted how it kept falling—from 25 per cent, to 23 per cent, to 18 per cent, until it dropped to below 15 per cent, a life-threatening level. My heart was shutting down. My wife was told that if it went below 15, I could die,” he says.
Evacuation to another country, 'real' medicine
The family pleaded for a medical evacuation to another country. According to Mr Kirwa, the hospital declined. They eventually secured a private emergency flight to Dubai. But even then, their ordeal was not over. The hospital delayed his discharge by more than 12 hours, nearly causing him to miss the evacuation window, he adds.
“I was supposed to use the emergency flight. I thought I was leaving at 6am, but I was only discharged at midnight.”
When he finally arrived in Dubai, doctors immediately stopped all the medication he had been receiving in Nairobi. The effect was remarkable.
“When I got to Dubai, the same medicines actually worked. I was able to move. My heart began to improve—from 18 per cent to 20 per cent, then 25 per cent, then 30 per cent. I was getting better. They then moved me to America, and my heart continued improving,” Mr Kirwa says.
Puzzled by why identical medications had failed in Kenya yet succeeded in Dubai, he asked his doctors for an explanation. Their answer was chilling: “We are giving you real medicine.”
The doctors warned him that many drugs entering Kenya may be counterfeit or substandard—mixed and re-labelled before being sold to unsuspecting patients. In the US, American physicians also discarded the medications Mr Kirwa had carried from Kenya. They prescribed the same drugs he had received in Dubai. His heart function eventually recovered to 50 percent—normal levels—through proper medication and cardiac rehabilitation.
Today, the MP is left with haunting questions.
“I almost died. If I had gone home as they initially told me, I would have died on the way,” he says.
He questions why he was denied TPA, a drug that could have stopped the heart attack instantly and spared him 15 months of recovery. He further wonders how many other Kenyans may have suffered—or died—from wrong diagnoses, counterfeit medication, or negligence.
“How many people have died because they trusted medication that wasn't real? What happens to those who cannot fly out of the country like I did?” he asks.
Formal complaint
Mr Kirwa says he intends to file a formal complaint with the Pharmacy and Poisons Board. “We must hold doctors and pharmacists accountable. The President has tried, but people within the system are letting Kenyans down,” he warns.
Dr Wairimu Mbogo, the president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya, has urged the MP to submit an official report detailing the specific medicines he was given, noting that the information is crucial for a professional investigation. “We cannot investigate what has not been reported. If the Honourable Member believes he received substandard medication, he must file an official complaint. Kenya has systems—and those systems only work when people use them."
The society confirms that no formal complaint has yet been filed and emphasises that the hospital in question is a reputable institution. Dr Ouma Oluga, the Medical Services Principal Secretary, says an investigation was launched more than two weeks ago following the MP's claims. He adds that officials have already met with the Director-General of the Pharmacy and Poisons Board and the National Drug Quality Control Laboratory—the institutions mandated to conduct tests—and that samples of the mentioned medicines have been collected for analysis.
“It takes 42 days to determine whether a drug is efficacious because one drug has many molecules, and each of those molecules is tested separately. We are trying to reduce those 42 days by investing in newer, quicker equipment that may bring it down to 23 days. But before then, we have already instituted the measures,” Dr Oluga explains.
He adds that Kenya is moving towards a digital track-and-trace system to ensure medicines are traceable from manufacture to patient—a move aimed at preventing future lapses. “Sometimes there can be manufacturing errors, even from original companies. That is why post-market surveillance is critical to ensure that every medicine reaching Kenyans is safe and effective.”
Nairobi Hospital, in a statement responding to the allegations, says all pharmaceuticals used at the facility are sourced exclusively from qualified, registered and thoroughly vetted suppliers. The hospital adds that every drug is subjected to a rigorous review process by its Medicines and Therapeutics Committee before being approved for use in its formula. It reiterates its commitment to maintaining the highest standards of patient safety and medication quality, assuring the public that its procedures are designed to safeguard all patients under its care.
