Budaka: Drugs worth shs68m stolen at Lyama health centre

Budaka, (UG): The Territorial Police in Budaka District, Western Uganda is actively investigating a case of drug theft at Lyama Health Centre III where health workers are accused of swindling government drugs from the public facility.

The facility’s in-charge, Mr Joseph Masolo opened up the case of store breaking and theft of government drugs to the police authorities which swung into action to investigate the matter.

The Bukedi North Regional Police Spokesperson, SP Samuel Semewo told this website that over 3,757 doses of Artosonate, 298 boxes of MRDT, 126 boxes of D-ARTEPP, and 7,450 test kits of RDT, all supplied by the National Medical Stores and valued at Shs68,590,033 million are suspected to have been stolen by the implicated health workers.

Further police investigation reveals that the theft occurred shortly after the drugs were received by the facility in early December 2023.

In the aftermath of the ongoing investigation, Semewo said that a security guard employed at the same facility has been arrested for allegedly involving in some petty thefts within the facility previously, although these had been managed by administrators.

“All the stolen drugs were kept in the facility’s store, with the keys held by the in-charge and a duplicate set given to the security guard. The theft was discovered on January 30, 2024, when Mr Masolo found empty boxes in the store, despite the padlocks appearing intact. It’s suspected that the thief used a duplicate key to gain access to the store,” SP Semewo explained.

“The police have registered the case and recovered some empty boxes from the store to aid in their investigation,” he added.

By press time, efforts were still underway to apprehend any other suspects involved in the theft and Semewo promised to update us in case of any development on the same.