Concerns raised over Sh2b counties owe Kemsa
Counties owe the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) over Sh2 billion, raising fears of a crisis in medical supplies in the coming days.
Despite the Sh2.4 billion debt, the authority was quick to assure health centres that they would continue receiving drugs as they engaged respective counties on how to settle the debt.
The disclosure came as the medical supply agency announced plans to decentralise its services by opening three new depots in Mombasa, Kisumu and Meru.
Kemsa acting CEO Edward Njoroge said the agency has started the process of engaging the counties on how the debts would be cleared.
County pharmacists
Speaking during a meeting with County Pharmacists in Naivasha yesterday, Njoroge noted that despite the financial challenges, Kemsa had all the required medical supply for public facilities.
“We are owed over Sh2.4b by counties and this has hampered our services but we are still delivering the required medical supply on time,” he said.
He added that plans were underway to open new depots in Kisumu and Mombasa before the end of the year as one way of reducing time taken to procure and transport the supplies.
Njoroge noted that under the ongoing reforms, the time taken to procure and deliver drugs to health centers in rural areas would be reduced from 21 to 14 days.
“The Kisumu depot will serve 19 nearby counties while the one in Mombasa will serve another six counties as part of improving our service delivery,” he said.
The CEO at the same time said that they were ready for the proposal by counties to directly procure necessary drugs without going through Kemsa.
