The Executive Director of the State House Health Monitoring Unit (SHMU), Dr Warren Naamara, has called for stricter and more deterrent punishments for individuals involved in the theft of government drugs, warning that current legal penalties are too lenient to effectively curb the vice.
Dr Naamara said the existing punishments under the Constitution and the Penal Code Act do not reflect the gravity of the offence, noting that offenders continue to exploit gaps in the law.
“The punishments provided for under the current legal framework are not strong enough to deter those involved in stealing government drugs,” Dr. Naamara said in an interview with Nile Post.
He urged both Parliament and the Judiciary, as key policy and law-making institutions, to urgently review and revise sentencing guidelines to ensure they serve as a stronger deterrent.
“We call upon the Judiciary and Parliament to strengthen these laws so that the punishments match the seriousness of the crime,” he added.
Dr. Naamara’s remarks were prompted by the recent Kitagwenda drug theft case, in which two individuals were convicted after pleading guilty to stealing and selling government medicines worth approximately Shs 1.2 billion.
In that case, the convicts were each given an option of paying a Shs 3 million fine or serving a two-year prison sentence. They opted to pay the fine and were subsequently released.
Naamara criticized the ruling, saying the penalty was grossly disproportionate to the scale of the offence.
“In a case involving drugs worth Shs 1.2 billion, giving offenders an option of a Shs 3 million fine or two years in prison is not commensurate. They should have both paid the fine and served a custodial sentence,” he said.
He further warned that theft of government medicines has direct and severe consequences on public health, particularly for vulnerable patients who rely on free or subsidised treatment in public facilities.
“Stealing government drugs is equivalent to killing a patient. When these medicines are stolen, patients are denied life-saving treatment,” Dr. Naamara cautioned.
He called for exemplary punishments that would send a strong warning to potential offenders and help restore accountability within the health sector.
Naamara emphasized that without tougher legal action, continued diversion of essential medicines would undermine service delivery and erode public confidence in Uganda’s healthcare system.