Punish Kemsa crooks for dead stock billions loss
What you need to know:
- Kemsa is staring at a Sh1.5 billion loss as a result of shady deals by people who had a key responsibility to ensure that supplies were procured to save the lives of fellow Kenyans.
- These people charged with ensuring a solid response to the deadly disease were only eyeing the billions of shillings they would later siphon out.
- They were profiting over many of their compatriots’ dead bodies and thousands of others battling the virus.
Nothing has lately exposed government officials’ greed as much as the Sh7.8 billion procurement scandal that arose out of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) is staring at a Sh1.5 billion loss as a result of shady deals by people who had a key responsibility to ensure that supplies were procured to save the lives of fellow Kenyans.
These people charged with ensuring a solid response to the deadly disease were only eyeing the billions of shillings they would later siphon out.
The individuals, now infamously referred to as the “Covid billionaires”, were so callous that all they cared about were the illegal commissions and outright theft.
They were profiting over many of their compatriots’ dead bodies and thousands of others battling the virus.
Walking free
To rub salt into the wound, these suppliers—who became billionaires overnight from illicit receipts, thanks to collusion with crooked officials—are still walking free as investigations have not led to their arrest and prosecution.
This is why it’s believed that the profiteers must have had ‘tall’ godfathers.
The Kemsa managers and their supervisors in the Ministry of Health have a case to answer.
There is dead stock worth billions of shillings from a procurement scam that saw a few individuals pocket billions of shillings for supplying the agency with equipment and other items well above the market rates.
The parliamentary committee that investigated the scam heard some amazing tales.
For example, one firm won a Sh1.3 billion tender a day for the supply of personal protective equipment (PPEs).
The owner walked into Kemsa offices with a letter of intent to supply the PPEs and, a day later had the lucrative tender in his hands.
Another trader received a phone call from a stranger that led her to clinch a Sh180 million Kemsa deal.
She went to their offices and, two weeks later, was asked to supply 40,000 PPEs immediately.
These racketeers and the crooked officials and managers who manipulated the agency’s procurement for their personal gain must be pursued and prosecuted and the loot recovered.
