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Furious President Uhuru Kenyatta disbanded the graft burdened medical supplies agency board in a direct reprimand to Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe for overseeing theft and run-down of the heavily donor-funded government parastatal.
President Kenyatta’s intervention worked to forestall possible diplomatic strain between Nairobi and Washington a decision preceded by a virtual meeting between President Kenyatta and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
Blinken expressed the need to reform the much tainted Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (Kemsa) as a pre-condition for continued support under the USAID programme.
“We have had problems with Kemsa, and as you know, concerns about corruption that I know the government is working to end. We have an obligation to our taxpayers when we are spending their money.” Blinken said.
Corruption claims and lack of transparency has precipitated frosty working arrangement between Kemsa and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) putting the lives of 1.5million Kenyans taking the Anti-Retroviral (ARV) drugs at risk.
“What we talked about today was making sure that as Kemsa is being reformed, nothing falls through the cracks. We want to make sure our assistance continues uninterrupted so that people in need of what we are providing do not go without it. We are going to work closely together,” Blinken added.
Openly subdued Kagwe said President Uhuru Kenyatta “can always, at his pleasure, make changes in any institution” in the country.
“I am also entitled to make changes on various boards that fall under the Ministry of Health,” he added.
USAID has remained adamant that the vital drugs will remain withheld at the Port of Mombasa curtailing distribution until the tax row between USAID and Kemsa is resolved.
Since September 2015, USAID and Kemsa have had a five-year contract for procurement, warehousing and distribution of donations into Nairobi notably HIV and Tuberculosis (TB) drugs.
US government conditional demand for reforms at Kemsa necessitated overhaul of the full board.
Through a Gazzette Notice issued on Wednesday and dated April 28, the President appointed Mary Chao Mwadime as the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Kemsa for a period of three years.
Her appointment takes effect on April 30th.
This followed revocation of James Kembi Gitura as the chair of Kemsa board.
In the same Gazzette Notice, Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe appointed four new members of the Board of Directors of Kemsa.
The four include Retired Captain Lawrence Wahome, Robert Nyarango, Terry Kiunge Ramadhani and Linton Nyaga Kinyua.
Their appointments also takes effect from April 30th.
Kagwe revoked the appointment of Timothy Mwololo Waema, Bibiana Njue, Joel Onsare Gesuka and Dorothy Atieno as members of Kemsa’s Board of Directors.
The Ministry of Health is also yet to clear the air how Kemsa flagged off allegedly toxic ARV drugs in 24,800 packs worth ksh1.2 billion to 31 counties.
Another consignment was flagged off from Kisumu to the remaining 16 counties on Tuesday.
The phased-out drug is Zidovudine/ Lamivudine/ Nevirapine.
HIV positive patients reported adverse reactions to the drugs such as abdominal pain, rash, fatigue, headache, vomiting, and muscle pain, among others.
The drugs flagged off were from an old stock donated by the Global Fund and the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief(Pepfar) and had been held at the warehouse for months.
In March last year, Kemsa told stakeholders that it had destroyed the drugs.
Kenyans living with HIV/AIDS breathed a temporary sigh of relief last week when it was announced that the Kenyan government had cleared the way for the distribution of Ksh.2.1 billion worth of life-saving antiretroviral drugs, donated by the US government that has been delayed at the port of Mombasa since January.
Though, the medical supplies that were stuck at the port remain in possession of USAID demanding that a private US based company, Chemonics International, be contracted to conduct the distribution before the drugs are released.
The consignment arrived on January 18, 2021.
The Kenyan parliament Parliament put USAID on the spot for contracting a blacklisted firm to distribute life-saving HIV and tuberculosis drugs while rejecting the services of Kemsa.
The Health committee of the National Assembly questioned the award of the contract to the privately owned American firm, Chemonics International, which stands blacklisted in Nigeria for financial fraud.
Chemonics was accused of hiring Zenith Carex as a sub-contractor which defrauded grant programmes in Nigeria of $3 million (Sh324 million) by systematically inflating invoices for distributing commodities to warehouses and health facilities.
An investigation by the Global Fund found that Chemonics approved and paid Zenith’s fraudulent invoices for over two years.
“Inadequate financial monitoring in the local office and US-based headquarters, combined with potential collusion between Chemonics and Zenith staff, allowed the fraud to remain undetected, despite significant budget overruns in the Global Fund contract,” says the Global Fund probe report shared with the Health committee.
Kemsa also made headlines regarding the Kemsa scandal.
A report by the Senate last month incriminated the Kemsa board for failing to oversee the operations of the management in the procurement of Covid-19 items.
The Senate Health Committee demanded investigations of senior Kemsa officials for their role in the scandal that saw millions of funds lost.
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