Suspended workers of the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) have asked President William Ruto to halt the ongoing reforms.
The 922 employees who were suspended by the board last year said that the reforms targeted old and serving employees leaving out top officials at the centre of decision making.
In a letter to the President, they claimed KEMSA introduced the reforms with an aim of sacking employees.
“It is worth noting that the HR Instruments which were developed without the participation of key internal stakeholders have been used to advertise for vacancies all under the guise of restructuring. This is a clear and tactful way of getting rid of the current staff and having them replaced by new people who seemingly have already been earmarked for these positions,” read the letter.
The letter was also copied to the Secretary to the Cabinet nominee Mercy Wanjau and Simon Rotich, the CEO of the Public Service Commission.
According to the employees, KEMSA is spending Sh90 million on salaries to the staff yet they are not doing much work.
“These positions are at the top management level (grades SA2, SA3 and SA4) and hence require full board approval and they also have to be recruited/sourced for competitively,” reads the letter.
They want Ruto to intervene and separate the Sh7.8 billion Covid-19 scandal from genuine human resource processes that they claim have now been turned into a witch-hunt for the long-serving employees.
“Conduct your investigations independent of the outgoing Health Cabinet Secretary and his Permanent Secretary since they were part of the scheme to get rid of long-serving staffers to cover-up the Covid-19 scam involving personal protective equipment (PPEs),” the letter read.
In February, the authority sent 29 senior managers on compulsory leave as the reforms were conducted at the institution, which has suffered bad publicity due to the Covid-19 Sh7.8 billion scandal on personal protective equipment for use during the pandemic.
At the time, KEMSA board chairperson Mary Mwadime asked the public not to read too much into the new development, citing that KEMSA has been undertaking a transformation programmed to fine-tune the organisation to current market demands.