Murang'a will source drugs only from Kemsa, says Kang'ata

@Alicewangechi

The Murang’a government will only source drugs from Kemsa, Governor Irungu Kang’ata has said.

Kang’ata, who officially assumed his new office in Murang’a town on Monday, said sourcing drugs from the government agency will lock out cartels that benefit when they are sourced from private entities.

He said he had made a formal communication to concerned officials in the county directing them to restrict the procurement of drugs to Kemsa.

The devolved unit, he said, had a debt of Sh35 million owed to Kemsa that resulted in the freezing of its accounts.

“Kemsa is not a profit-making entity. I have had an engagement with Kemsa’s CEO and we have agreed that our accounts will be unfrozen,” he said.

Kang’ata said collection of garbage will be among his priorities, saying that uncollected garbage in the streets, estates and markets has become a crisis.

At his inaugural meeting, Kang’ata said the issue of delayed salaries for county staff will be discussed to find a way to resolve it.

“Unpaid staff are unmotivated and this issue will have to be discussed as soon as possible,” he said.

As a matter of urgency, the governor said he will also address the Nyota Zetu scholarship programme that was initiated by former governor Mwangi wa Iria.

The programme has more than 5,000 students in boarding schools’ who receive about Sh20,000 per term to sustain them in schools and support them up to Form 4.

The programme, which enrols 1,000 Form 1 students each year, was aimed at bridging the rich-poor gap by ensuring bright students from poor backgrounds access good quality education.

Previously, most of the students would join local day schools as bursaries were insufficient to see them through boarding schools and their chances were taken by students from well-off families.

But Kang’ata noted that some of the cheques that the county government last issued bounced, placing the concerned students’ education in limbo.

“We will engage the existing county staff to see how to go about resolving this issue to ensure the students’ education is uninterrupted,” he said.

Kang’ata had earlier alluded that he would expand the programme to have it include students from day schools who he said take the bulk of students.

“Farmers are one of the voting block that rallied behind us and we will have to figure out how to start fulfilling our pledges to them,” he said.

His pledges included using farmers’ co-operative societies to support them with cash to help them procure farm inputs.

Edited by A.N