The National Assembly Health Committee chaired by Murang'a Woman Rep Sabina Chege is set to meet with Kemsa board this week to understand why their staff were sent home.
On Thursday last week, the agency's new board sent home all staff as part of ongoing reforms at the medical authority that has been hit by scandals of misappropriations of monies.
All staff were asked to work from home for the next 30 days as the military and National Youth Service took over operations of the troubled medical supply agency.
On Friday, the Health committee met with stakeholders to deliberate on the exorbitant cost of healthcare in the country and consideration of the Health Laws Amendment Bill, 2021.
Chege said Kemsa workers were not part of their investigation during the Covid-19 millionaires’ scandal.
"We will be meeting with the Kemsa board next week and shall make public our stand as a committee once we understand where they are coming from. We might not interfere with what they are doing now, but once we have an understanding we can be able to offer advice on the way forward," Chege said.
She further urged the employees asked to work remotely to be calm and await the 30 days to elapse to know the way forward.
The legislator also said the committee's investigations, their report and recommendations never touched on the workers or the structure of the authority.
"In our initial investigations on the utilisation of Covid funds, we never went into details of the structure of Kemsa and the number of employees. In the auditing, we recommended the establishment of a new board, which has since been put in place and currently undertaking new reforms at the agency," Chege said.
In April, President Uhuru Kenyatta disbanded the former board chaired by Kembi Gitura, replacing him with Mary Chao Mwadime through gazette notice number 4010 dated April 28.
The move was in the wake of a multi-billion shillings scandal surrounding the agency over alleged dubious tender deals amounting to Sh7.8 billion.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe completed the boards’ composition by appointing Captain (Rtd) Lawrence Wahome, Terry Kiunge, Linton Nyaga and Robert Nyarango to the board for a three year term beginning April 30.
The four replaced Timothy Mwololo, Dorothy Atieno, Bibiana Njue and Joel Chisare who were all sent home.
-Edited by SKanyara
