Two jailed for failing to take TB drugs
A procession to mark the World TB day in Kibera last year. Two patients who declined to take Tuberculosis drugs have been jailed for eight months by a Kapsabet court. FILE | NATION
What you need to know:
- The two patients, who were not represented, pleaded guilty and asked the court to treat them with leniency.
- Court urged to have them confined in isolation at the Kapsabet Prisons so that they can take the drugs under supervision
Two patients who declined to take Tuberculosis drugs have been jailed for eight months by a Kapsabet court, in Kenya's Rift Valley province.
The sentence was to enable them take the drugs as prescribed by doctors to curb the spread of the disease while in confinement because they had refused to swallow them voluntarily.
In a rare sentence, Kapsabet principal magistrate John Njoroge noted that the court has a duty to protect lives of Kenyans.
The accused person Daniel Ng’etich, 35, and Patrick Kirui, 40, were charged on June 12, 2009 after they defaulted taking drugs prescribed to them by doctors in Kapsabet District Hospital.
Nandi Central district TB defaulter tracing coordinator Zacharia Maina told the court that the two were patients under medication and had declined to take drugs several times as prescribed to them by medics.
Mr Maina added that failure to take drugs had exposed the public, their relatives and neighbours’ at Kiropket village in Nandi Central district to the risk of TB infections.
He told the court that the two, by defaulting to take their drugs, had also put their lives at risk by driving their bodies to develop resistance to TB drugs.
He urged the court to have them confined in isolation at the Kapsabet Prisons so that they can take the drugs under supervision for a period of eight months so that they can complete their medication.
The two, who were not represented, pleaded guilty and asked the court to treat them with leniency.
But Mr Njoroge said it was important for those suffering from such diseases to take their prescriptions as stipulated adding that medication for TB drugs were costly.
“Anyone suffering from infectious diseases like TB should adhere to doctors prescriptions considering the high cost of anti-TB drugs being supplied by the Government,” he said.
The magistrate then directed that they serve eight months in prison and in isolation at the prisons until their term ends.
The magistrate further directed the two to be put and supervision of a public health officer to ensure that they complete the prescribed doses.
