President Uhuru Kenyatta has directed the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA) to avail all its tenders and procurements online to enhance transparency. This comes on the back of the multi billion KEMSA scandal, where tenders were issued for the supply of Covid-19 equipment including N95 masks, PPEs that weren’t supplied and were overpriced. The scandal has caused a stir countrywide, with calls for Health CS Mutahi Kagwe and Health PS Susan Mochache to resign.
Speaking when opening the Resolution of the Covid-19 virtual conference that brought together Governors, stakeholders on Monday, President Kenyatta said the Health Ministry should come up with the transparent mechanism to make available all tenders within the next 30 days so that those given the tenders and their values can be known. “I think through this level of transparency and through the use of technology will go a long way towards ensuring that we have the confidence of our people that those who are placed in institutions are able to manage resources of the Kenyan taxpayers and our development partners,” he said.
However, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe defended himself and the Ministry over the graft allegation s, saying the matter has been politicized. He said Kenyans shouldn’t be naive to the issue of politicization and weaponization, “We live in a country that is fairly political and it is obvious that there is weaponization of politics.”