Advertise

Advertise

Kagwe orders Kemsa to release PPEs, masks at current market price

 

Health CS Mutahi Kagwe has ordered Kemsa to release PPEs and masks lying idle in their warehouses.

The items have been lying idle in the warehouses after the counties and other bodies declined to procure them as they were expensive.

The CS said he ordered Kemsa to allow counties to draw the products at the current market prices.

They were among the items Kemsa acquired in its overdrive procurement at exorbitant prices only for the market cost to drop months later.

"I have written to Kemsa to allow to release masks and PPEs at the current market rate instead of holding them," he said.

The CS spoke on Wednesday when he appeared before the Senate Health Committee to respond to concerns NHIF and private insurance firms have declined to cover Covid 19 related claims.

But Narok senator Ledama Olekina asked who would take the responsibility for the loss the Kenyans incurred.

" Why can't these items be returned back to the suppliers because some of them have not been paid for," he said.

Kagwe said the initial prices of the items were when the virus hit the world

"The global prices of all those things were the prices Kemsa bought them at. I removed the day I borrowed 300,00 PPEs from the Agha Khan hospitals... Kemsa had to take a hit... We cannot pretend... " he said.

No comments

Translate