Governors call for extensive KEMSA reforms to ensure efficiency
Council of Governors have called for an extensive reforms in Kenya Medical Supply Authority (KEMSA) to make it efficient, more accountable to both levels of government as counties mull alternate suppliers.
In a circular, CoG chair Martin Wambora said that procurement and distribution of health products needs to be restructured in a way that it aligns with devolution.
“Essentially, the Constitution assigned health functions to both the National Government and the County Governments. While delivery of most of the essential health services is assigned to County Governments, the role of the National Government in the delivery of health services is restricted to National referral health facilities,” Wambora noted.
Governors want KEMSA to be established and structured as a joint entity of both the National and County governments, which will be answerable to both.
Additionally, they have asked authorities to investigate the misuse of resources at the medical authority and bring to book all found guilty.
Last week, KEMSA employees received emails from the chief executive officer requiring them to attend a virtual staff meeting on November 4.
The meeting was chaired by board chair Mary Mwadime, and the employees later told that KEMSA had run out of funds and had procurement issues.
She then issued a notice of general redundancy to the staff and directed non-core members to proceed on 30 days leave or work from home to allow restructuring.
The statement further said core staff were retained on a temporary basis for one month.
The Kenya Defence Force (KDF) has since taken over operations at KEMSA.
