COVID -19 Expenditures :Presidency orders anti-graft agency to fastrack probe

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has instructed the country’s anti-corruption commission to expedite action on its investigation on Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA).

Kenyatta insisted that investigation of the agency responsible for supplying Kenya’s overwhelmed hospitals treating coronavirus patients have to be expeditiously carried out. To that effect, KEMSA’s CEO and other top officials have been stood down.

The President on Monday ordered Kenya’s health ministry to publish details of all purchases made during the coronavirus pandemic as millions of dollars have been alleged stolen by government officials.

The directive applies particularly to tenders issued by the state-run KEMSA, at the centre of a growing scandal that has prompted strikes at ill-equipped hospitals and street protests.

KEMSA is under fire over allegations that government officials and businessmen pilfered $400 million in public money earmarked for medical equipment needed in the fight against coronavirus.

Kenyatta also said the health ministry had 30 days to develop a “transparent” system so that KEMSA’s procurement processes could be published online.

The president stated: “This level of transparency and through the use of technology, will go a very along way in ensuring that we have the confidence of our people that those placed in institutions are able to manage the resources of the Kenyan taxpayer plus our development partners in an open and transparent manner.”

In the East African country, frontline health workers have been among the 577 to die from coronavirus since the first case was detected in the country in March. They include a 32-year-old nurse who succumbed to the disease two weeks after giving birth to her child.

Medical staff dealing with coronavirus patients have complained about the quality of supplies, with some posting images online of defective personal protective equipment sent to emergency rooms across the country.

Doctors in public hospitals went on strike this month, not long after a television investigation alleged massive graft at KEMSA, sparking anti-corruption protests in several Kenyan cities. Police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators in Nairobi last week.

The KEMSA scandal came after Kenyan investigators vowed a separate inquiry into the alleged theft of PPE supplies donated by Chinese billionaire and Alibaba founder Jack Ma.

On cue for COVID19 testing in Kenya

The allegations of graft and misappropriation surfaced as new infections of Covid-19 soared across Kenya, though numbers have dipped in recent weeks.

Government officials have expressed optimism about the downward trend but WHO Kenya urged caution in a note Monday, warning that overall testing and contact tracing had also declined over the same period.