Covid essentials rot at Kemsa as threats revealed

Suspended Kemsa procurement manager Charles Juma when he appeared before the parliamentary Public Investments Committee in Nairobi, yesterday. [Elvis Ogina,Standard]

It has emerged that there were threats to make top Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (Kemsa) officials “disappear” if they dithered in awarding multi-billion shilling Covid-19 tenders.

This comes as the agency warned that the value of stocks being investigated is dropping.

Yesterday, Edward Njoroge, the Kemsa acting CEO told the Senate Committee on Health that supplies which are in  their stores will continue losing value until Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) gives it clearance to dispose it of.

EACC is investigating an alleged Sh7.8 billion corruption scandal at Kemsa, which led to the suspension of distribution of the supplies.

“EACC said we should not touch the equipment unless they have given us a go-ahead. There is nothing we can do,” revealed Njoroge.

And appearing before the parliamentary Public Investments Committee (PIC), suspended Kemsa procurement boss Charles Juma turned the tables on the suspended CEO Jonah Manjari claiming that he bypassed the procurement office to award tenders in excess of Sh2 billion for Covid-19 essentials to choice companies.

Juma told PIC that the commitment of eight companies, Regal Freighters (Sh270 million), Northlink GSC Ltd (Sh135 million), Meraky Healthcare (Sh140 million), Everywhere Distributors Ltd (Sh118 million), La Miguela Holdings Ltd (Sh180 million), Shop N buy Limited (Sh970 million), Medlife Biologicals Ltd (Sh240 million and Komtel Kenya Limited (Sh283 million) were all issued in Manjari’s office.

Singling out Shop N buy Ltd and Nanopay Ltd, the suspended procurement boss said they were approved and issued with commitment letters by Manjari without the knowledge of the procurement office.

He said his secretary was asked Manjari to immediately write a commitment letter for Shop N buy Ltd and backdate it to April 30.

“The eight were done without the knowledge of the procurement office. Instructions were just issued from his office to write the letters. We only came to know about these procurement’s when the goods were supplied to us,” he said.

Juma told PIC that Manjari was more involved in the procurement process than his office.

He claimed that the suspended CEO ignored his advisory on budget expenditure that had exceeded the allocation and instead went ahead and awarded tenders, without involving the procurement office.

He claimed that Manjari cautioned him on the individuals involved in the process, a caution he translated to mean a threat to life.

“He told me that I did not know the intrigues of the procurement.

"Several times I went into his office and he told me how I did not know who he was dealing with and how he was told that he could disappear. I perceived this a threat to my life,” Juma told the committee.

He added: “I had no control of the whole procurement of Covid-19. If I did, we would not have been where we are now.”

Juma said he told the suspended CEO to discuss the overshot of the budget with suppliers and to cancel the procurements. Despite the advice, only one company’s letter was revoked and the eight were still awarded.

“I wrote a memo to the CEO with the subject Emergency Procurement of complete PPE kits and reiterated that the emergency procurement with KILIG Limited should be shelved and the cancellation letter was signed and sent to the supplier,” Juma said.

Last week, Manjari said that there has been a plot by his colleagues to fix him over anomalies in procurement of Covid-19 essentials.

He refuted claims that staff were in the dark as he awarded tenders worth billions of shillings to suppliers.

But yesterday, Juma said that he informed the CEO that the initial budget of Sh4 billion had been exhausted and that any further procurement would be a breach of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal (PRADA) Act 2015  as the commitment letters under Kemsa capital had amounted to Sh7 billion.

Commitment letters

“Concerning commitment letters with a deficit of Sh3 million, I recommended that funds should be availed or these procurement’s deferred to the next financial year,” he said.

Manjari had previously claimed that he was under pressure from Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe and Principal Secretary Susan Mochache to ensure that the tenders were awarded to certain companies.

He told the Senate committee that he was receiving numerous calls, text messages and emails to award tenders for Covid-19 essentials.

Juma claimed that the issuance of the commitment letters by Manjari was made in secrecy.

He explained that since the Covid-19 essentials were an emergency procurement, there was no procurement plan for it. 

“The CEO said that there would be money made available by the ministry,” he said.