Senators demand sacking of Kemsa bosses in dispute

A Senate team wants the national drugs agency overhauled over alleged corruption and delays in distribution of medicine to public hospitals.

The Senate Committee on Health claimed expired and wrong drugs worth millions of shillings had been dispatched to many hospitals and blamed the management of the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (Kemsa) for the blunder.

The committee made the appeal during a one-week tour of hospitals in the North Rift where they discovered some expired and wrong drugs meant for patients.

They challenged Kemsa to explain why the medicine was sent to hospitals. Led by the committee vice-chairperson Zipporah Kittony, they cited Trans-Nzoia and Elgeyo-Marakwet as some of the counties which they found expired drugs.

In Nandi, a hospital received glucose which it never asked for and was never supplied with the essential drugs they ordered. The senators were speaking at the Nandi governor’s offices after they visited Kapsabet and Nandi Hill Hospitals in company of Nandi Deputy Governor Dominic Biwott.

STAMP OUT CORRUPTION

Area senator Stephen Sang also said the region had paid for drugs worth Sh12 million but they ended up getting drugs valued at Sh4 million. “Each of the 47 counties should have a referral hospital because both Kenyatta and Moi hospitals are overstretched,” he added.

They asked the government to overhaul the entire management in a bid to stamp out high levels of corruption. The senators also demanded that Kemsa officers who allowed expired drugs to be dispatched to hospitals be sent home because they were risking the lives of patients.

Mr Biwott told the team the county had set a site 52 per cent of its local budget to develop health facilities.

The deputy governor also revealed that donors had agreed to fund the upgrading of Kapsabet district hospital into level 5 facility while Nandi hills district hospital would be upgraded to level 4.