• Governors say they were blackmailed to sign the medical equipment project.
• Details of the deal have never been made public despite gobbling billions of taxpayers’ money.
Image: FILE
Governors want the Senate to probe the Sh38 billion medical equipment leased to the counties under the Managed Equipment Services (MES) project.
The county bosses protested arbitrary increment on the equipment from Sh4.5 billion to Sh9 billion.
Council of Governors Chairman Wycliffe Oparanya disclosed that with the increment each county will now pay Sh200 million from the previous agreement of Sh97.7 million.
“Leasing of the contentious medical equipment is directly debited to our budgets. None of the 47 governors knows what they signed on, where the money goes to,” Oparanya said.
Yesterday, the county chiefs opened up for the first time about the project that has been shrouded in mystery since its inception five years ago.
They said they were manipulated, blackmailed and forced to sign the deal under duress.
Appearing before the Senate Finance and Budget committee, the governors urged the House to form a committee to probe the deal to unmask the mystery and the faces behind it.
The details of the deal have never been made public despite gobbling billions of taxpayers’ money.
Kisumu governor Anyang’ Nyong’o was the first to call for the probe of the project.
He was supported by Oparanya (Kakamega), Mwangi wa Iria (Murang'a), Wycliffe Wangamati (Bungoma) and Paul Chepkwony (Kericho).
All of them told the senators that they were blackmailed to accept the medical equipment and sign a leasing agreement that they never saw. They said they neither know the faces behind the deal nor have they seen the agreement.
The county bosses had appeared before the panel to discuss the Division of Revenue Bill 2019 yesterday.
“The equipment was brought to Kakamega General Hospital at night on a Saturday. I declined but I was made to accept under duress,” Oparanya said.
The governors said state machinery at that time mobilised chiefs and their assistants and gave them express permission to announce to the public through barazas that he had rejected the equipment.
“The chiefs were telling people that if cancer patients were dying it was because of my refusal to accept the equipment donated to them by the national government. I had to accept,” he said.
Chepkwony said that only then Bomet governor Isaac Ruto refused the equipment. This, he said, made him lose his seat as his opponents banked on it to bring him down in the 2017 elections.
“People in Kericho were openly told that they were dying of cancer because of me. That I had rejected the equipment. I was manipulated and I had no choice but to sign,” he said
CoG chief executive officer Jackline Omogeni said efforts by the council to access the agreement from the Ministry of Health have been futile.
In the deal, a fixed sum of Sh90 million was supposed to be deducted annually from each county after it signed a seven-year leasing agreement with the supplier on behalf of the counties.
However, the deal has been varied and the period increased to 10 years. In this year’s budget, the counties were allocated Sh9.8 billion while in the 2019-20 they have been allocated Sh6.2 billion.