‘I Was to Die in a Week,’ MP Kirwa Says as He Blames Nairobi Hospital and ‘Fake’ Drugs Before US Rescue

Lawmaker’s shocking testimony of near-death experience at elite facility exposes alarming gaps in Kenya’s healthcare system as doctors abroad reveal he was given ‘real medicine’

It was meant to be a day of celebration. On the morning of August 3 last year, Mosop Member of Parliament Abraham Kirwa woke up healthy and energised, ready to mark his 54th birthday.

He drove to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to pick up his wife, then headed to his usual Saturday radio programme, looking forward to connecting with constituents over the airwaves.

By nightfall, he was fighting for his life in an intensive care unit, his heart failing, his wife in tears, medical staff scrambling.

What followed was a 15-month odyssey across three continents that would not only transform his life but also raise explosive questions about the quality of medicines Kenyans trust with their lives every single day.

Midway through his radio show that fateful afternoon, Kirwa’s vision began to blur. The studio lights dimmed. Voices became distant echoes.

“I asked my wife for water, but I couldn’t even see where she was standing. I knew something was wrong,” Kirwa recalls, his voice still heavy with the memory of that terrifying moment.

His wife, familiar with American medical protocols from her time abroad, immediately recognised the classic signs of a heart attack.

As they rushed to Nairobi Hospital, one of the country’s most prestigious private facilities, she had one urgent request for the emergency room doctors: administer TPA, the clot-busting drug that can halt heart attacks and strokes when given within the critical first hours.

The doctor on duty refused.

A family physician joined her plea. The answer remained no.

Hours dragged by. Kirwa’s condition worsened. Finally, at 2am, the medical team made an astonishing recommendation: 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,’” Kirwa recounts, still disbelieving even now, months later.

His wife insisted on blood tests.

Only when results revealed dangerously elevated enzyme levels, unmistakable markers of severe heart damage, did the hospital hurriedly admit him to the ICU. Kirwa would spend the next 18 days there, receiving round-the-clock therapy and medications he believed were nursing him back to health.

They were not. His heart was shutting down.

“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.

Desperate, the family pleaded with hospital administrators for a medical evacuation abroad.

According to Kirwa, the hospital declined. Using their own resources and connections, they secured a private emergency flight to Dubai. But even then, their nightmare continued. The hospital delayed his discharge by more than 12 hours, nearly causing him to miss the evacuation window.

“I was supposed to use the emergency flight. I thought I was leaving at 6am, but I was only discharged at midnight,” Kirwa says.

When he finally arrived in Dubai, doctors immediately stopped all the medication he had been receiving in Nairobi. The effect was nothing short of 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,” Kirwa says.

Puzzled by this dramatic turnaround, by why identical medications had failed catastrophically in Kenya yet succeeded spectacularly in Dubai, he asked his doctors for an explanation. Their answer sent chills down his spine.

“We are giving you real medicine.”

The doctors warned him that many drugs entering Kenya may be counterfeit or substandard, mixed and relabelled before being sold to unsuspecting patients.

In the United States, American physicians also discarded the medications Kirwa had carried from Kenya.

They prescribed the same drugs he had received in Dubai. His heart function eventually recovered to 50 per cent, normal levels, through proper medication and intensive cardiac rehabilitation.

Today, months after his return to Kenya and his emotional homecoming at Parliament last month where fellow MPs gave him a standing ovation, the lawmaker is left with haunting questions that he says keep him awake at night.

“I almost died. If I had gone home as they initially told me, I would have died on the way,” he says, his voice cracking. “I was to die in a week’s time.”

Homecoming and Thanksgiving ceremony for Mosop MP Abraham Kirwa, at his home in Kapchepnyogoson village, Mosop Constituency.

He questions why he was denied TPA, a globally recognised drug that could have stopped the heart attack instantly and potentially spared him 15 months of agonising recovery.

He wonders, with growing anger, how many other Kenyans may have suffered or died from wrong diagnoses, counterfeit medication, or sheer 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 demands.

Kirwa says he intends to file a formal complaint with the Pharmacy and Poisons Board, the regulatory body mandated to protect Kenyans from substandard and falsified medicines.

“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, 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,” Dr Mbogo says.

The society confirms that no formal complaint has yet been filed and emphasises that the hospital in question is a reputable institution with rigorous quality controls.

Dr Ouma Oluga, the Medical Services Principal Secretary, says an investigation was launched more than two weeks ago following Kirwa’s explosive 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 medicines in question have been collected for comprehensive 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 critical 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,” the PS says.

Nairobi Hospital, in a carefully worded statement responding to the grave 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 formulary.

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.

But for Kirwa, these assurances ring hollow after his brush with death.

His story has ignited a fierce national conversation about the quality of healthcare in Kenya, particularly concerning the pharmaceutical supply chain that ordinary citizens depend on daily.

Studies indicate that up to 30 per cent of medicines in Kenya may be counterfeit, with a black market value of Sh15 billion, according to research by industry associations including the Kenya Association of Pharmaceutical Industry, Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya, Kenya Medical Association, and Kenya Association of Manufacturers.

Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale has responded to mounting public pressure by ordering the Pharmacy and Poisons Board to launch an immediate nationwide crackdown on businesses supplying substandard medical products.

In a stern directive issued last month, Duale said the board must ensure that all substandard, falsified, poor quality, counterfeit, and unregistered medicines are immediately pulled from the Kenyan market.

“Any individuals, premises, establishments, or entities involved in the distribution or sale of these illegal products must be arrested and prosecuted. Action must be taken not only against those in charge of the premises but also against their directors,” Duale declared.

Former Public Service Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria has also weighed in, congratulating Kirwa on his recovery while calling for parliamentary action.

“I am happy for Mosop MP Abraham Kirwa for successful recovery. I now urge him to summon the Ministry of Health to parliament and ask them what they are doing to track and trace all pharmaceutical products coming to Kenya,” Kuria said.

Kirwa’s ordeal represents more than just one man’s nightmare. It exposes systemic vulnerabilities in Kenya’s healthcare infrastructure that affect millions. For the vast majority of Kenyans, those without the financial means for international medical evacuations costing millions of shillings, his story evokes a chilling reality.

Where will they run to when the medicine fails? Who will save them when the drugs meant to heal become instruments of harm?

During his speech in Parliament upon his return, Kirwa received standing ovations from colleagues who had visited him during his darkest days in Nairobi, Dubai and America.

He thanked Speaker Moses Wetang’ula, National Assembly Clerk Samuel Njoroge, and Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah for their unwavering support. Most of all, he thanked his wife.

“She was there from the beginning to the end. She is still there. And I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you,” he told MPs, his voice breaking.

He also praised the people of Mosop for their patience during his 18-month absence, noting that development projects continued smoothly.

But now, fully back in the corridors of power, Kirwa has a new mission: to ensure no other Kenyan suffers the fate he narrowly escaped.

His testimony has become a clarion call for urgent reform in the pharmaceutical sector, a demand that fake medicines must be eliminated from the supply chain, and a plea that those responsible for endangering lives must face justice.

“I almost died because someone somewhere decided to cut corners, to prioritise profit over human life,” Kirwa says. “That cannot stand. That must never happen again.”

For millions of Kenyans who walk into pharmacies and hospitals every day, trusting that the medicines they receive will heal rather than harm, Kirwa’s harrowing experience serves as a sobering reminder: in the battle for quality healthcare, vigilance is not optional. It is a matter of life and death.