Over 1Million Condoms Missing In Fresh KEMSA Scandal

By Owino Nyakiti

KEMSA offices, Nairobi (PHOTO: Courtesy)

There is a fresh scandal where 1.1 million condoms, 908,000 mosquito nets, and tuberculosis (TB) drugs worth Ksh.10 million are missing at the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA).

Global Fund, a Switzerland-based organization that funds governments to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, said that the supplies are suspected to have been stolen then resold to private chemists.

“Kemsa has poor internal controls on warehousing and inventory management, resulting in 16 percent differences in batch numbers verified, and discrepancies of 908,000 long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) between actual and expected stock balances,” the Global Fund’s report quoted.

According to Global Fund audit, KEMSA also overstated the value of medicines by Ksh.640 million, as some suspected fake suppliers are also purportedly demanding Ksh1.66 billion from the embattled drug supplier.

“We identified 165 long outstanding/undelivered local purchase orders (LPOs) valued at $14.5 million (Sh1.66 billion). The high number of LPOs without attached delivery notes poses the risk of fake suppliers or diverted procurements,” added the report.

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The audit also revealed that whereas public hospitals across the country complain about drug supply shortages, some of the drugs bought by Global Fund had expired in KEMSA’s warehouses.

In 2020, there was another scandal at KEMSA when Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) reported that the purchase of Covid-19 kits was marred with “criminal” behavior and that there was an “irregular expenditure” of Ksh.7.8 billion.

The Directorate of Public Prosecutions, Noordin Haji, has since stated that investigations into COVID-19 KEMSA scandal are on, urging Kenyans to be patient.

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