Ruto fires PS, Kemsa board in nets saga
President William Ruto yesterday cracked the whip at the scandal-ridden Kemsa, firing the Principal Secretary at the State Department of Public Health Dr Josephine Mburu and the entire board.
He appointed former PS Irungu Nyakera as the new board chair, replacing the incumbent, former Keiyo South MP Daniel Rono, and reconstituted the board with Hesbon Oyieko Omolo, Bernard Kipkirui Bett, Dr Jane Masiga and Jane Nyagaturi Mbatia as the new board members.
He further appointed Dr Andrew Mutava Mulwa as the new Kemsa chief executive, replacing embattled Terry Ramadhani who was suspended during the purge.
“The president has been briefed on the complaints of alleged impropriety within Kemsa in its management and administration of various medical programmes,” read a brief signed by Public Service Head Felix Koskei. “The complaints follow the regular verification of expenditure by the Global Fund with regard to the National Malaria Program that targets millions of low income Kenyan households within our nation’s Malaria endemic regions. The alleged maladministration on the part of Kemsa is with regard to the procurement of treated mosquito nets for those vulnerable households, which could have led to significant exposure to the disease and increase its severity in the endemic regions.”
Those suspended alongside Ramadhani included Kemsa and Health Ministry staff—Martin Wamwea (MoH), Lenson Kariuki (MoH), Dr Pauline Duya (MoH), Livingstone Njuguna (MoH), Dr Charles Kariuki Chege (MoH), Justus Kinoti (Kemsa), Cosmas Rotich (Kemsa) and Anthony Chege (Kemsa).
The sackings came as anti-corruption detectives camped at Ramadhani’s office as they searched for documents related to the ‘Covid heist’ during which hundreds of millions of tax payers money is believed to have been lost through irregular deals.
The investigations commenced just hours after President Ruto promised to take action into the scandal that rocked the previous administration at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic when suppliers were paid millions of shillings in suspect drug transactions.
High level talks
“They have been in the office perusing documents for the better part of the day but they have not communicated to anyone what they are looking for,” said a board member who requested not to be identified because he is not authorised to speak to the media on behalf of the agency.
Earlier in the day, the President had convened a meeting to discuss the crisis at the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa), a day after he promised to clean up the agency.
Sources said the Cabinet Secretary of Health, Susan Nakumicha and Dr Koskei were among those who attended the high level talks that could see heads rolling in coming days.
Unaware of what awaited him, Rono had earlier told People Daily that he was aware of the meeting but had not been directed to convene a meeting to ratify the resolutions of yesterday’s meeting.
The committee recommended that the EACC investigates former chairman Kembi Gitura, Joel Onsare and former Kemsa board members.
Also recommended for probe are suspended CEO Jonah Manjari, director of procurement Charles Juma and former Finance director Waiganjo Karanja for dereliction of duty.
The committee chaired by the then Mvita Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir,now Mombasa Governor also invited the anti-graft agency to investigate the top Kemsa management on how it processed payment to some suppliers.
A special audit revealed that taxpayers may have lost up to Sh3.2 billion in irregular payments.
Innocent passer-by
An account of how an “innocent passer-by” landed a Sh180 million tender for the supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), exposed the extent to which mandarins at the agency dished out tenders to Covid tenderpreneurs in total disregard to procurement processes.
James Njuguna, a director of La Miguela Holdings Limited, narrated how he got the tender by sheer luck.
The businessman said he happened to be passing by the authority headquarters where he spotted many people lining up and became curious as to what taking place. “I went straight to the receptionist who advised me not to waste time and apply for the tenders which were being flaunted.
I quickly penned off a two-sentence letter and after two hours I was told I had succeeded and asked to collect the commitment letter from the Chief executive officer’s office,” Njuguna recounted.
PIC further asked the Kenya Revenue Authority to investigate whether all the suppliers had declared and paid taxes due to the taxman.
The committee also recommended that the companies that were paid nearly Sh4 billion, in samples and initial supplies, refund the cash to the government.
