While Kenyans first heard about him in 2015 following an expose on local television, they are more content now that he has been arraigned in court following a public outcry.
In 2015, Mugo was charged with operating an illegal clinic in Githurai. He was also accused of raping a woman he had allegedly sedated at Prestige Healthcare Clinic. Police recovered equipment believed to be used for illegal abortions.
He returned to the headlines three years after he was charged with masquerading as a gynaecologist. In the investigative piece, Mugo is seen giving a diagnosis seemingly drunk. He also demands Sh800 for medicine that costs Sh40. The fake doctor also demands Sh23,000 from a woman whose daughter had an abortion under the guise of treatment for a stomachache.
On November 23, 2018, “Fake” doctor Mugo was arraigned in court, where he denied operating a clinic, laboratory, a pharmacy and practising as a nurse without a licence.
This year, James Mugo Ndichu, his real name, was charged alongside two of his employees, still students. The two were arrested after Flying Squad’s head of operations John Njoroge and his team stormed the clinic. Victor Kamunya and Risper Auma were apprehended at Mugo’s clinic and were temporarily freed on bond.
Mugo hit the headlines when an investigative report showed him operating a clinic in Kayole named Millan Health Care.
What irked many Kenyans after the second expose was the fact that a man who was accused of operating a clinic without a licence and raping a woman was still free.
But Flying Squad boss Musa Yego reassured Kenyans when he said, “We are closing in on him. We are confident that before the end of the week, he will be with us.”
The police search had spread to parts of Kiambu. Residents, who seemed at the forefront to ensure Mugo was arrested, tipped police that Mugo was spotted in Ruaka dressed in women’s clothes. It was not him.