By The Weekly Vision
The NGO Council of Kenya has called for a thorough audit of the alleged tender scam at Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA) which has seen a total of Ksh. 870 million squandered in a bogus deal. Speaking in Nairobi after President William Ruto disbanded the KEMSA board and kicked out other top Ministry of Health officials over the scam, NGO council chairman Stephen Kipchumba Cheboi said the head of state had made a timely intervention in this scandal whose culprits must face the full force of the law.
“Members of the disbanded board must answer for their crimes,” Cheboi said adding that a similar case involving Covid-19 PPEs in 2021 was still pending in court and implicated senior officials at the Ministry of Health have never been arrested. Cheboi said it was unfortunate that funds meant to buy mosquito nets designed to help poor Kenyan mothers and their children in malaria-prone areas had been diverted into the deep pockets of senior state bureaucrats. “But we commend the president for sending home the entire board and other top figures and we hope investigations will leave no stone unturned.
Cheboi compared the mosquito scandal to the iron sheets meant for the pastoralist Karamajong community in neighbouring Uganda where ministers and senior state bureaucrats have been arrested and charged. “That is the route we should follow” Cheboi said stressing that there must be no sacred cows in the fight against corruption in which top bureaucrats are stealing public funds with impunity.
Cheboi said malaria remains one of the leading killer diseases in Kenya, and the UN Global Fund had raised the red flag after it established money extended to buy mosquito nets for public hospitals and maternity centres in 47 counties had been embezzled.
