• Senators ask why governors never complained about non-consultation and variation of contract from Sh38 billion to Sh63 billion, allege a conspiracy
• But governors say they wrote to several agencies and met Uhuru who said he would form a committee to investigate under Health CS
Image: FILE
Senators have termed the Sh63 billion Managed Equipment Services programme "the biggest scandal of our time" after a damning submission by governors in the ongoing inquiry into the scheme.
Council of Governors chairman Wycliffe Oparanya (Kakamega) and Laikipia's Nderitu Muriithi disclosed that the programme was an exclusive affair of top officials in the Ministry of Health who negotiated and executed the deal while keeping the county chiefs in the dark.
Oparanya told the Senate ad hoc committee probing the scheme that the officials neither consulted the council nor the governors in the conceptualisation of the programme including conducting the needs assessment.
The county chiefs were coerced and bulldozed into signing the MoU with the ministry, he said. Some counties signed after the equipment had been delivered.
The governor told the committee chaired by Isiolo Senator Fatuma Dullo that they were not privy to the contractual agreement between the ministry and the firms that supplied the equipment.
“We were not involved in the entire programme. We were brought on board when the project was ongoing for the purpose of coordination. We have never seen the contract or the need assessment report the ministry claims to have prepared,” he said.
“We signed them under duress because the pressure was too much. When I signed it, I didn’t even want to read it because the equipment was already there, they were delivered on a Saturday at night."
He explained that as a result of lack of consultation, there was duplication in the equipment supplied as individual counties had already acquired some of them.
Some of the equipment has been lying idle in the counties because of lack of technical personnel to operate them despite the devolved units having paid Sh25.9 billion since the deal was signed.
"Turkana county received a CT Scan machine when they already had one. Embu got five dialysis machines when they already had five while Laikipia received an x-ray machine yet it had a functional one," he said.
But the senators put the CoG boss to the task, demanding to know why the council has never complained.
“I see a conspiracy between governors and this authority that has imposed the programme on you. They deliver without assessment of your needs, there was no public participation, no contract supplied to you, they vary the amount from Sh95 million to Sh200 million and there is no question from the governors,” Nominated Senator Judith Pareno said.
But Oparanya said they have written to several institutions including the Senate, office of the Attorney General and Auditor General to look into the programme that has been draining each county Sh200 million every year.
The council met President Uhuru Kenyatta at their last County Government Coordinating Summit and asked about the variation of the amount.
The Sh38 billion deal was signed in 2015 at State House for a fixed term of seven years but the contract was varied and the sum increased to Sh63 billion. The sum is recovered at the source.
“We have raised this issue at the last summit. We queried the variation. The President said he would form a committee to investigate. The CS for Health (Sicily Kariuki) was given that mandate coordinate this team,” Oparanya said.
Murithi said, “It is not clear the basis of what is charged to counties, the figure was increased without a clear explanation as to which additional pieces of equipment are we expecting and from where. There is not quite a bit of detail that is available.”
Senators Moses Wetang'ula (Bungoma), Christopher Lagat (Bomet) and Millicent Omanga said the programme is the biggest scandal in the history of the county, an observation Oparanya nodded to.
“As the chairman of the council, do you agree with me that this is a serious scandal as we can see?" Lagat asked Oparanya.
“I agree, but to what extent I don’t know,” Oparanya responded.
Wetang'ula said, “What is before us is a general feeling supported by the fact that somebody or some people sitting at the Health ministry headquarters connived to do business using counties as the conduit.”
Edited by R.Wamochie