• Nairobi and Narok top the counties that are yet to clear their debts.
• The parastatal promises that the relationship with devolved units will be maintained.
Image: FILE
Counties 0we the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency more than Sh2.3 billion with Nairobi and Narok in the top league of defaulters.
Kemsa commercial director Eliud Muriithi said half of the country's devolved units had defaulted.
“Nairobi county owes Kemsa Sh254 million. We are pleading with the respective governors to make good their payments because the debt has been there for some time,” he said.
Murithi spoke yesterday in Laikipia during the flagging off of medical supplies worth Sh26 million at Nanyuki Teaching and Referral Hospital.
Governor Ndiritu Muriithi said the supplies will be delivered to all the county's health facilities.
“We will continue to look for ways to build the confidence of citizens in the front line facilities because the health system is a referral system but sometimes they (citizens) believe there might not be medicines in the local dispensaries and health centres,” the governor said.
Ndiritu said the county is increasingly relying on technology for communication. Medical practitioners will not be scribbling prescriptions on pieces of papers.
This will help in tracking what is being prescribed and to determine which medicines are procured.
Ndiritu noted that there will be more reliance on data on disease patterns so that medicines are bought on a need basis.
The Kemsa official asked the counties with debts to pay for the agency to procure and supply health products.
“We will continue partnering with counties in training health workers so that they can deliver services as required,” he said.
(Edited by O. Owino)