Kemsa on the Spot Again for Sh 3.7 Billion Scandal

President William Ruto has made changes at the Kenya Medical Supplies Authorities (Kemsa) after an exposé of the scandal in the agency. 

The head of state has fired Public Health PS Dr Josephine Mburu, suspended Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) CEO Terry Ramadhani and kicked out the agency's entire board over a Sh 3.7 billion mosquito net supply scandal. He has appointed Farmers Party leader Irungu Nyakera as Kemsa board chair.

The scandal involves a misappropriated Sh 3.7 billion mosquito net deal which has the danger of exposing poor families to Malaria. This follows the revocation of the tender by the Global Fund, a failure to which Kemsa would have gathered Sh370 million in revenue. The Global Fund's revocation, according to their audit team, was triggered by procurement gaps at Kemsa. The fund disputed the listed winners of the tender including  Partec East Africa Limited and Shobikaa Impex. 

Shobikaa's failure to appear on the database of the registrar of companies mounted distrust. However, the ex-Kemsa CEO Terry Ramadhani insisted that Shobikaa was an international company. She said that the tender was an open international tender, hence the participation of the Indian company. 

"The product is what is registered in PPB in Kenya. So of course you are not going to find it," she argued. 

The Global Fund however denied the assertions proclaiming that the companies shouldn't have qualified because they failed to meet the requirements. The fund now intends to internally handle the procurement protocols, a move that denies the country Sh600 million. Kemsa spiked public outrage during the Covid-19 pandemic which saw 7.8 billion embezzled by individuals dubbed 'Covid millionaires'.