Malava public health officers go rogue, terrorise businesses, traders

Public health officers stationed at Malava subcounty hospital have allegedly gone rogue and gone on a spree of terrorising businesses and traders.

Sources have intimated to Mulembe News that the public health officers are demanding huge bribes from traders and threatening to close businesses whose owners do not offer the bribes.

The most affected businesses include eateries and bars and restaurant. Also not spared are learning institutions.

The officers are said to be walking around with blank closure notices for premises which they promptly fill whenever they are not offered bribes after storming premises unannounced.

They collect up to KSh10,000 from premises and share amongst themselves, according to one of the traders affected who exposed the officials.

Several calls and reports to the area head of Public Health, Charles Namasake, have landed on deaf ears and now the business community is calling for a total overhaul of the department.

Failure to make changes, the business community has threatened unspecified consequences.

This comes hot on the heels of another scandal where public health official are said to be colluding with impersonators whom they sent to various facilities to collect bribes in pretext that they also work at the offices only to sent the loot to them.

In another health scare, it has since emerged that the people in the area are consuming meat from cattle that fell ill and died or taken to slaughterhouse and later, sold to butcheries.

“Some of the key risks include beef tapeworm infection ( also known as Taeniasis ), which manifests as abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea,” revealed a health officer.

Most of this, another source revealed, comes from deep withing villages with the blessings of some health inspection officers who declare it fit for consumption after getting their share of bribes.

The meat is then transported in the cover of darkness to some butcheries where it is sold to unsuspecting members of the public.

When asked for a comment, the Inspection Officer Miriam Wamalwa only confirmed one incident in which she said the cow had a dislocation and was safe for human consumption, denying claims that she approves bad meat to be sold to the masses.