Varsity to represent Private Universities in the Pharmacy & Poisons Board
Private Universities now have a seat at the Pharmacy and Poisons Board. This was through The Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act, 2015 which was signed into law by the President of Kenya on 15th December 2015. Through this law, Private Universities training Pharmacists were legally empowered to nominate a person to the Pharmacy and Poisons Board. The Deans of the four private universities training Pharmacists in Kenya (MKU, USIU-A, KEMU and Kabarak University) met and established a forum (The Kenya Association of Pharmacy Schools) through which each of the four private universities nominated one person. The list of four names was forwarded to the Cabinet Secretary of Health from which to choose one person to represent the Private Universities in the PPB.
The Cabinet Secretary of Health – Dr. Cleopas Mailu (4th from Left) inaugurating the newly elected and gazetted Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB) of Kenya last month at the Pharmacy and Poisons Board premises. Dr Edith Wakori (2nd from left) will represent the four private universities that are currently training Pharmacists. The other members of the PPB are the Director of Medical Services (Chairman), Dr. Jackson Kioko; the Chief Pharmacist (Secretary) Dr. Kipkerich Chuma Koskei; the Director of Veterinary Services Dr. Kisa Juma Ngeiywa; Dr. Alfred Rugendo Birichi, Dr. Mary Nthambi Kisingu, Dr. Rogers Atebe, and Mr. Abdi Omar Jama. The Board will be in office for a period of three years.
Dr. Edith Wakori, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Pharmacy at Mount Kenya University was nominated from the four names submitted. Dr. Wakori has a long and distinguished career in the Pharmacy profession being amongst the 1st graduates of Pharmacy in Kenya in the mid-1970s. As a former Dean of the MKU Pharmacy School, she is well versed with the higher education pharmaceutical academic landscape.Currently, Dr. Wakori is the programme leader in the MKU Bachelor of Pharmacy programme.
The Pharmacy and Poisons Board which consists of nine elected members is the regulator of the Pharmacy profession and the trade in drugs and poisons in Kenya. Having a seat in this board therefore ensures that Private Universities in Kenya through Mount Kenya University will have a direct role in shaping not only the regulations in the training of Pharmaceutical personnel in Kenya but also all the other aspects of Pharmacy practice that define the profession of Pharmacy in general.
We wish Dr. Edith Wakori all the best in this noble task of representing the interests of Private Universities and the Pharmacy profession in Kenya.
