Tensions are rising inside the government as a result of a recent tender controversy involving Sh3. 7 billion that occurred at the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa). President William Ruto has issued a strong warning to officials within the government in response to the incident. Senior government officials have been put in a state of terror as a result of the decisive actions taken by President Ruto. These actions include the instant dismissal of Dr. Josphine Mburu as Public Health Principal Secretary, the removal of the Kemsa board, and the suspension of CEO Terry Ramadhani.
The opposition, on the other hand, maintains that the Cabinet secretaries, each of whom plays a key role in their own ministry, bear the ultimate responsibility for the situation. On Monday, President Ruto initiated action against Kemsa, and on Tuesday, he executed adjustments that affected seven Permanent Secretaries (PSs). Kemsa was the target of President Ruto’ s action on Monday.
On Tuesday, during a Cabinet meeting, an enraged President Ruto declared his commitment to prevent the misappropriation of public funds and admonished Cabinet Secretaries against indulging in malpractice. He also urged cabinet secretaries not to engage in malpractice themselves. The President was said to have been enraged by intelligence assessments that indicated the participation of a Cabinet official’ s family in the improper acquisition of malaria nets supported by the Global Fund. According to credible sources, the president expressed his indignation about the matter.
According to the information compiled by the intelligence agencies, a member of the Cabinet official’ s family used their influence to ensure that two of the 16 named companies, Partec East Africa Ltd. and Shobikaa Impex Ltd. , were awarded the contract. The ousted PS issued a letter to the CEO of Kemsa on February 21, outlining anomalies in the specifications for the nets in the Global Fund procurement. This was the beginning of the issues surrounding the tender. However, in a second letter issued the day after Mburu offered his arguments, the Global Fund responded by saying that they were not valid.
As a direct consequence of this, the Global Fund decided to go with an independent procurement strategy and gave the bid to Wambo. org. As a direct result of this, the government sustained a loss equivalent to around Sh400 million in potential earnings from the Global Fund tender. This tender had the intention of supplying the ministry with more than 10 million insecticide- treated nets.
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