I will end KEMSA monopoly if elected President -Ruto
Kenya Kwanza presidential candidate William Ruto has vowed to put a stop to the monopoly enjoyed by the scandal-riddled Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA).
Ruto made his intentions for KEMSA known while speaking during a health forum held by the Kenya Kwanza alliance at the Catholic University of East Africa in Nairobi Monday, June 27 2022.
KEMSA has been on the spot over the alleged disappearance of medicine and medical equipment from its warehouse worth millions of shillings.
The Deputy President indicated that he will end the monopoly enjoyed by KEMSA if he is elected president, insisting that no one can persuade him that only one agency should be responsible to distribute drugs across the country.
"If there is one another thing we must sort out and again we are going to listen to you so that you tell us we must sort out the health commodity supply chain. I don't know about the wisdom of having a monopoly called KEMSA, some people must persuade us that there is logic, there is a reason why we have a facility that doesn't have drugs that are required at the right time but they have drugs that stay in the stores until they expire. We just simply must sort it out. You go to any health facility, you go to any county they will tell you they have very serious challenges with KEMSA," Ruto lamented.
Ruto tried to reform KEMSA in vail
The Kenya Kwanza presidential flagbearer further said that he tried to reform KEMSA as the chairman of the Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council (IBEC) but his efforts bore no fruits.
Ruto said he recommended that counties appoint two members to the board of KEMSA but the move did little to bring the much-desired change to the medical supplies authority.
"As chair of the IBEC, we even tried to say let the counties appoint two directors to KEMSA, they did about two years ago but we are still on the same spot. The structure of the supply of drugs simply needs to be redone," Ruto insisted.
President Uhuru Kenyatta had tried to hand over KEMSA's operations to the military in a bid to put an end to the scandals that bedevilled the agency and streamline operations. However, he fell short of his intention due to fierce opposition from several concerned parties.
