Charles Githinji, the chairperson of the Pharmacy and Poisons Board, has defended his position in a case where the Kenya Medical and Practitioners Board fined him Sh27,000 following the death of a child.
The chairman was accused of failing to obtain the minor’s medical history, resulting in an incorrect diagnosis and inappropriate prescription.
Githinji explained that he is neither a doctor nor a dentist but a registered pharmacist in response to a suit filed by lawyer Apollo Mboya who sued him for gross misconduct.
Mboya filed a lawsuit attempting to overturn Githinji’s nomination as board chairperson on January 20, 2023.
Githinji, on the other hand, has asserted that he cannot be disciplined by the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board.
The board also fined him for impersonating a medical practitioner and providing diagnostic and therapeutic services, but he claimed the findings were overturned by the High Court.
Githinji appealed the board’s judgment, claiming that he was not a doctor or a dentist, but rather a registered pharmacist, and thus not subject to the board’s disciplinary jurisdiction.
According to Githinji, the court’s findings and holdings are unequivocal that the Board exceeded its jurisdiction when it pretended to sit and decide a complaint against him.
He says that the conviction by the KMPD Board on which the suit is solely premised no longer exists rendering the entire petition a stillbirth.
“That the said decision was and remains a nullity in law and any cause of action (like the present) one sought to be premised on such a nullity, is a nullity in itself,” Githinji said.
Githinji further states that the court was never called to investigate or determine his professional suitability and there is a clear and wide distinction between professional negligence and professional misconduct.
