A 20-year-old woman, Dina Gesare and Alvin Ruto have been arraigned at the Narok Law courts for running chemists without registration and clearance from the Pharmacy and Poisons Board.
The two were arrested on May 23, 2022 on separate locations by police officers and officers from the Pharmacy and Poisons Board who were carrying out a crackdown on unregistered chemists’ operators in the county.
Ms. Gesare was operating at Bethany Medical Center and Pharmacy which is located at TM area while the second accused, Ruto, was operating a pharmacy called Olma Medical Clinic in Ewaso Ngiro area.
The two were charged with three counts namely: Operating a chemist in a premise that is not registered by the Pharmacy and Poison Board, working and selling medication at a chemist without being registered as a chemist by the Pharmacy and Poisons Board and being in possession of medicine believed to be sold at the chemists.
Ruto, pleaded guilty to all the three accounts but pleaded with the court to be lenient with him and asked for forgiveness saying he operated the business owing to the difficult economic times.
Being a first-time offender, Resident Magistrate Daniel Ngayo ordered him to pay a fine of Sh. 10,000 for the first count, Sh. 5,000 for the second count and Sh. 5,000 for the third count.
Failure to pay the fine would lead Ruto to serve five months imprisonment for the first count, two months imprisonment for the second count and two months for the third count concurrently.
Ms. Gesare on the other hand pleaded not guilty to all the three accounts and was given a bond of Sh. 50,000 and surety of the same amount. If she will not be able to raise the amount then she will be held in custody awaiting her trial on June 9, 2022.
