By Spy Reporter
Jinja: A government pharmacist who was working at Kiruddu Hospital committed suicide after being exposed as part of a group of medics stealing and selling government drugs.
Richard Olaja,27, was pronounced dead on Saturday morning after allegedly dosing himself with a yet to be identified substance. The Kira region Police spokesperson Diana Nandawula confirmed Olaja’s death, saying they had picked him from Lucky Guest House in Jinja and taken him to Jinja hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Nandawula revealed that the management of Lucky Guest house contacted police and reported that one their clients who checked in the previous day was unconscious. Police rushed to the scene, retrieved Olaja from the room and rushed him to Jinja hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. She said the body had been taken for postmortem analysis to determine the exact cause of the pharmacist’s death.
However, it later emerged that Olaja was one of the medics captured on camera in the NBS investigative story titled ‘Stealing from the sick’, which unearthed the illicit sale of government drugs by medics in government hospitals. Police say the deceased left several suicide notes that he addressed to family and friends before he allegedly dosed himself with the killer substance that took his life. In one of the notes addressed to his mother, Olaja denied being involved in the illicit sale of government drugs. He claimed that he had been set up by a friend and he warned the same friend not to appear at his burial.
Below is one of the suicide notes in full.
To mum
Mummy I loved you so much and will always love you. I thank you for bringing me to this world. I think I have had enough of it it’s now my time to leave. Mummy tell my little brother precious never to get any friend because all the suffering am going through is because of someone I took as a friend who set up journalists to come to me and claim they wanted to buy drugs. Mummy this I will swear to you with tears in my eyes that I have never sold any medicines or drugs to anyone at any point in my profession. Mummy I tried hard to avoid them but they insisted. Mummy 120 caused all this to me. Thanks your beloved Richard.
I am sorry for the pain I am going to make you go through but mummy take care of Precious.
NBS TV journalists recently broadcast an investigative piece which went viral on social media. In the documentary, journalists headed by Solomon Serwanja expose how government drugs sent to hospitals across the country end up in the arms of medics who sell them to drug shop owners and across borders.
