The Kenya Pharmaceutical Association (KPA) Kenyans with diploma in pharmacy will be banned from managing drug stores in health centres and from handling some medicines if new guidelines are adopted.
The diploma holders, known as pharmaceutical technologists, have for years run pharmacies in smaller hospitals and health centres.
But the Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP) Guidelines 2026, now in their 11th draft, reserve these roles for degree-holding pharmacists, leaving diploma holders to manage only dispensaries.
The Kenya Pharmaceutical Association (KPA), which represents the technologists, has rejected the new guidelines outright.
KPA Secretary General Eric Gichane and the association's President Chitechi Amboka said their association was never properly consulted when the Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB) formulated the final version of the rules.
“Having considered the circumstances surrounding the evolution of the GPP Guidelines, the exclusion of the Association from substantive engagement after Draft 9, the introduction of provisions that materially affect the professional role of Pharmaceutical Technologists, the Kenya Pharmaceutical Association Rejects Draft 11 of the Good Pharmacy Practice Guidelines in its entirety,” they said.
Gichane said Kenya has about 2,931 licensed [degree] pharmacists compared with about 10,000 licensed pharmaceutical technologists.
He said this means Kenya lacks enough pharmacists to place one in charge of every health centre and all larger hospitals.
“Kenya's pharmaceutical workforce is not composed exclusively of pharmacists. The national Health Worker Registry currently lists approximately 2,738 pharmacists and 9,927 pharmaceutical technologists, demonstrating the substantial contribution of the latter cadre to the country's pharmaceutical workforce,” Gichane and Amboka said in a joint statement.
They said the problem becomes clearer when the number of health facilities is taken into account.
Kenya has about 2,559 Level 3 facilities (health centres), 971 Level 4 facilities, 34 Level 5 facilities and five Level 6 facilities, according to the Ministry of Health's 2023 health facility census. The country also has more than 1,050 faith-based organisation facilities.
“Even before accounting for pharmacy professionals required in Level 4, Level 5 and Level 6 hospitals, specialised services, industry, academia, regulatory institutions, research, wholesale and other areas of practice, the numbers make an exclusively pharmacist-dependent superintendency model for Level 3 facilities operationally impractical,” they said.
The technologists are also angry about a separate rule that bans them from handling narcotic and psychotropic drugs. These are strong medicines used to control severe pain, such as in cancer patients, and to treat mental health conditions.
Only degree-holding pharmacists would be allowed to manage these drugs, even in facilities where technologists currently run the pharmacy day to day.
KPA says this would hurt patients more than it protects them. The association's leaders describe the rule as "discriminatory" and warn it risks leaving patients without access to pain relief or mental health drugs, especially far from towns. They insist they do not oppose control of dangerous medicines, only the blanket exclusion of trained technologists from handling them.
“A regulatory framework should never make a medicine legally available in principle but practically inaccessible because the health system has unnecessarily restricted the category of professionals capable of facilitating its lawful and safe access,” Amboka said.
But the Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya (PSK), whose members are degree holders, has come out firmly behind the new guidelines. Its President Dr Wairimu Njuki said the rules are meant to protect patients.
PSK also praised PPB, the government body that regulates the profession, for its wider work on drug safety.
“Supporting the Guidelines does not mean that stakeholders cannot raise questions or propose practical improvements. However, any review, clarification or implementation guidance should preserve the overall objective of strengthening professional standards and protecting patients,” Wairimu said.
At the Kenya Health Summit in August, PPB Chief Executive Dr Ahmed Mohamed said the board revised the guidelines in a push to raise Kenya’s regulatory status to meet international benchmarks.
KPA said the guidelines should not be rushed through simply to chase an international rating. The association wants a fresh, open review that brings all sides back to the table before the rules are adopted.
The proposed Good Pharmacy Practice Guidelines cover areas such as buying and storing medicines, checking prescriptions, dispensing, counselling patients and keeping records.
The old version of the guidelines was unveiled in 2024, but the regulator is now updating the rules to reflect changes in pharmacy practice and strengthen safety and professional standards.
Instant analysis
The proposed pharmacy guidelines expose a growing professional battle over who should manage medicines in Kenya’s health facilities. While pharmacists argue that tighter standards will improve patient safety, pharmaceutical technologists warn that excluding them could create staffing gaps and restrict access to essential medicines, particularly in lower-level facilities. The dispute highlights a difficult balance between raising professional standards and ensuring Kenya’s already stretched health system has enough personnel to deliver care.
