Nairobi will procure drugs from private suppliers after the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority suspended supplies over Sh284 million debt.
City Hall had promised to pay Kemsa Sh30 million every month from August last year to clear its debts, but it infrequently pays less than that.
Governor Mike Sonko said he will turn to private suppliers. "Under emergency procurement, we will look for drug suppliers and pay them every month," he said on Friday.
"We won't politick with lives of people but we won't kneel before Kemsa; they are not God."
This might put the quality of those drugs into question because Kemsa and the church-owned Mission for Essential Drugs and Supplies are the only ISO certified public drugs suppliers in Kenya.
A letter obtained by the Star from City Hall shows county officials met Kemsa management on August 2, last year, and promised to clear the Sh234 million through a monthly payment of Sh30 million.
“Nairobi commits to pay the above-referenced amount accruing from previous supplies of Sh234,454,054 owed to Kemsa in monthly instalments from August 30, 2018, until fully settled,” then Finance CEC Allan Igambi said in the letter dated August 13, last year.
Igambi further pleaded for new drugs saying the new debt would be paid every three months.
“Further to this, the health sector has placed an order of medical supplies amounting to Sh146,569,583 to urgently address the health commodity crisis in the sector. The current deliveries will be settled on a quarterly basis,” he said.
Kemsa supplied the medicines immediately on credit but City Hall never paid for them.
Of the promised monthly repayments, City Hall only paid Sh2 million on August 23, last year, and nothing in September and October.
In November, December, and January, City Hall paid Sh25 million, Sh20 million and Sh25 million respectively, instead of the monthly Sh30 million it promised.
No money was paid in February but in March, Sh25 million was paid.
On Monday, Health executive Mohammed Dagane told the Star that since the agreement last August, Kemsa has only dispatched drugs once.
"We had agreed they continue supplying drugs as we continue paying the debts but we haven't received any drugs since last August. In January, we made a new request but still no drugs were supplied," he said.
Dagane said the county will start procuring drugs from other local medical suppliers. In August, Sonko said he had paid the agency Sh58 million.
He now claims the balance will be cleared by the national government through a "County Government Recovery Plan".
“The President called (Treasury PS Kamau) Thugge, (Treasury CS) Henry Rotich and we agreed the national government was ready to give us Sh55 billion. We didn’t want the money to go to the county government because there is still corruption there," he said.
"It will be paid directly to creditors. Thugge has a letter of undertaking showing how Kemsa will be paid."
The governor was reluctant to clear the debt because most of it was accrued during the tenure of Evans Kidero.
“The law says all pending bills should be investigated and one of our procurement officers has been arrested,” he said on Friday.
The devolved units have an agreement with Kemsa to pay in 45 days after the delivery of medical supplies.
Other counties in debt are Makueni (Sh163 million), Homa Bay (Sh138 million), Narok (Sh105 million), Kitui (Sh94 million), Kiambu (Sh95 million) and Turkana (Sh96 million).
Kemsa CEO Jonah Manjari said the authority was open to talks on how the counties can clear their debts.
"Our commitment is to fulfil the Universal Health Coverage. If counties do not procure drugs from the right suppliers, then there is a risk," he said.
(Edited by R.Wamochie)
