Uhuru orders Health Ministry to make public all KEMSA contracts

President Uhuru Kenyatta has ordered the Ministry of Health to make public all contracts undertaken by the scandal-riddled Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA).

The President essentially went back to his Executive Order 2 of 2018 on procurement of public goods, works, and services by public entities that appears to have been largely ignored by public offices.

“The ministry of health within 30 days come up with a transparent method through which all tenders and procurement done at KEMSA are available online,” President Kenyatta said.

The Executive Order came into force on the July 1, 2018 and compelled public entities to maintain and continuously update and publicize complete information of all tenders awarded.

This includes the full details of the supplier; contractor or consultant; specification of goods or services being procured; technical and financial capacity of the supplier; the award date and contract period; the market price of the goods being procured and the price guidelines as published by the public procurement regulatory authority.

“Through the use of technology we will go a very long way towards ensuring that we have the confidence of our people and even donors,” President Kenyatta said on Monday.

Also to be published online is the membership of the evaluation committee and the inspection and acceptance committee of the procuring entity.

“If we don’t do this then I don’t think we are serious dealing with corruption,” said Irungu Houghton, the Executive Director at Amnesty International Kenya.

This is the President’s second of such orders aimed at unearthing the mess at the medical supplies agency.

Last week, President Kenyatta ordered investigations into the KEMSA scandal be completed within 21 days.

This as Health CS Mutahi Kagwe maintained his innocence saying linking him to KEMSA was political but agreed that procurement and tenders should all be virtual.

CS Kagwe claimed the KEMSA scandal has been politicized and weaponized to drag his name through the mud.

Suspended KEMSA Chief Executive Jonah Manjari implicated CS Kagwe and Health PS Susan Mochache for dictating to the agency which contracts and contractors to be used.

Parliament has demanded for a thorough audit of KEMSA’s expenditure in the purchase of COVID-19 emergency supplies with the PS and the suspended management team expected to appear before health committee later this week.