Grace Moraa, 25, calls to mind the first time she took slimming pills. She had gone into a cosmetic shop in Nairobi to buy lipstick, but ended up leaving with a more promising product. — slimming pills. The brand name was Magilim. Inside were 60 capsules packaged in a loosely sealed bottle, with a promise to make her drop more than 10 kilos in a month. Having struggled with weight gain for years, Moraa was thrilled.

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Her weight was 98 kilos, & the attendants assured her with just 3 bottles, she can get to her dream digits: 60 kilos in less than 3 months. The price was Sh2,000.

“He told me to take 2 in the morning, see how my body reacts & then take another pair if did not have side effects,” says Moraa.

When she took the first 2 pills, she got stomach cramps, extreme nausea & dizziness. She went back to the shop butwas told those were normal side effects. She had only used the pills for 2 days when the worst happened. Moraa, a social health worker was on a task when a wave of dizziness & hot flashes hit. She sipped water & immediately threw up. “I thought I was going to die,” she says.

She went home & hoped things will be fine. It took a number of hours before the symptoms slowly waned, leaving her with a feeling of self-loathing & regret. She however says when she at last got the courage to open up to her friends, most of them confessed to have used different brands of pills.

Worth dying for?

“At the end of it, you want to be slim. That is all that matters. Many people I know use them,” says Moraa.

That mantra, it seems, is what has fuelled the influx of weight loss supplies in the market. A spot check by Saturday Standard in beauty shops around the Central Business District showed racks of products promising to speed up weight loss. Some of the products had Chinese inscriptions.

“People who supply us & those who use say one should take between 8 & 12 pills a day for best results,” said a chemist attendant who requested not to be named.

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Who is to blame?

He revealed they get their shipment from Eastleigh & River Road, with most of their supplies coming from China & Thailand. Medics are now raising worries on the availability of non prescribed medication.

Dr Jacqueline Kitulu, national chairperson of Kenya Medical Association says the reality that one can walk into a shop & buy medication is disturbing.

 “Before someone gets medication, the patients should be tested, & ingredients must be listed so that the user knows what is getting into their body,” she says. Kitulu says one of the biggest snag they face as a profession is dealing with self-medicating patients.

“You should not take any form of medication without getting a correct diagnosis. Even if it is common cold,” she says. Patricia Wairimu in Eldoret told Saturday Standard on phone that she started experimenting with diet pills when she was just 19. At 70kgs, she felt she was too big. Therefore began her journey for a solution that led her to her uncle’s cabinet where she got a bottle of slimming pills. Pendulum swing of moods & suppressed appetite were some of the side effects she underwent. The allure of ‘a perfect body’ nevertheless kept her going.

In a few weeks, she had an empty bottle & pain.

“I don’t know what they put in those things, but the feeling you get is not good,” she says.

The regulators of quality Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) say endorsement of medication is outside their mandate. They throw the responsibility solely on Pharmacy & Poison Board (PPB).

“Any complaint on the pills should be directed at the relevant agency authorized to regulate pharmaceutical drugs,” said the communication manager Patricia Kimathi. Even though KEBS owns up they are responsible for controlling language used on products sold in the country, the team found diverse slimming pills packaged in Chinese.

KEBS said they are in talks with PPB to both inspect some of the products under KEBS PVOC (Pre export corroboration of conformity) program.

“KEBS & PPB decided to place all medical devices under this program effective September 1,2017,” says Kimathi.

PPB said they weren’t in a position to respond on why there’s an influx of drugs at the moment, but will issue explanation once they do their findings.