Report To Work Tomorrow- CS Nakhumicha To 200 KEMSA Staff
The CS, who spoke tough on the matter, poked holes at the decision to have more than 200 staff working from home for more than two years yet they continue to draw salaries from the authority.
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Health Cabinet Secretary (CS) Susan Nakhumicha Wafula, on Thursday, May 18 ordered all Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) staff to report to work on Friday, May 19.
Speaking during the inauguration of the new KEMSA board at the Embakasi depot in Nairobi, Nakhumicha directed the new KEMSA Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Andrew Mulwa, to ensure that the more than 200 staff who were consigned to work from home since November 2021 to return to the offices at 8 am.
The CS, who spoke tough on the matter, poked holes at the decision to have more than 200 staff working from home for more than two years yet they continue to draw salaries from the authority.
Health CS, Susan Nakhumicha during the inauguration ceremony of the newly constituted board of the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) on May 18, 2023. /MINISTRY OF HEALTH
"This institution has undergone very many issues and one of them is related to the staff. I hereby direct the CEO, effective tomorrow morning, all staff working for KEMSA, over 200 working from home, to report to work tomorrow at 8 am.
"I hereby direct the chair that you ensure that your staff understand what is expected of them. It does not make sense, it is irresponsible to have paid over 200 people for two years then sitting at home in the name of COVID yet we all go to our offices nowadays," she stated.
Nakhumicha further instructed the new KEMSA chairman, Irungu Nyakera, to ensure that the Human Resources (HR) skills and expertise within the agency are tightened.
She further vowed to rein in crooks she termed as ruining the name of KEMSA in her bid to clean up the institution rocked by scandals that have shaken the nation.
"We have individual culprits who stained the image of this institution. I will not stop at anything, even if it means sending home a whole department, I am ready to deal with it.
"This institution must be clean and we are going to uproot all the roots, all the evil spirits that have been planted in this institution," she promised.
More than 200 employees of KEMSA have been working from home since November 2021 when the board sent them home to allow for organisational restructuring following the KEMSA COVID-19 scandal.
The agency has been embroiled in multiple allegations of corruption and malpractice, which forced President William Ruto to take administrative action by disbanding the entire KEMSA board, sacking Josephine Mburu as the Principal Secretary of the State Department for Public Health and Professional Standards and initiating his first reshuffle affecting seven PSs since assuming office on September 13, 2022.
In addition, KEMSA CEO Terry Ramadhani alongside other Ministry of Health staff (Martin Wamwea, Lenson Kariuki, Dr Pauline Duya, Livingstone Njuguna, Dr Charles Kariuki, Justus Kinoti, Cosmas Rotich and Anthony Chege) were suspended.
"The Head of State and Government is committed to heralding a new era in the management of our nation's healthcare by ensuring that no Kenyan will be denied the dignity of affordable medical care due to corruption.
"Therefore, in keeping with the Administration's Health policy of "leaving no one behind", the Administration will spare no effort in rebuilding the KEMSA supply chain management system so as to secure efficiency and accountability in the provision of medical supplies to all health facilities across our nation," revealed the Head of State through a statement by Felix Koskei, Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service.
The action came after The Global Fund was forced to cancel a Ksh3.7 billion mosquito nets tender owing to KEMSA's irregular procurement process.
