• Narok senator Ledama Olekina asked him to stop taking the MPs for a ride while refusing to answer to procurement questions.
• Nominated senator Beatrice Kwamboka interjected saying that the chairman should not scold him.
Image: SENATE
Tension was rife in Parliament on Friday after the Kemsa board chair Kembi Gitura was at pains to answer some of the questions posed to him on Covid-19 funds.
Narok Senator Ledama Olekina asked him to stop taking the MPs for a ride while refusing to answer to procurement questions.
"Why is it that the chair of the board is saying that he does not have a role in procurement, yet you are directing that the contract be signed immediately?" Ledama asked.
The Narok Senator asked what was he gaining by not wanting to disclose some of the questions fronted to him.
"..what is your interest, were you bribed?" Olekina posed but before he finished, the board chair asked him if he was through.
"Are you through?" Gitura posed.
But Olekina quickly interjected saying " Wait! I am not through, I will tell you when I am through. Don't take us as if we are foolish or stupid. We know what we are dealing with, we have gone through the documentation...."
"When we ask you a question about direct procurement, please answer. Don't give me that smack. This is a very emotive issue."
Don't take us as if we are foolish or stupid. We know what we are dealing with, we have gone through the documentation...."Ledama Ole Kina says
Olekina said the chair has many issues that he needs to answer to.
"You disregard that there are institutions that follow every single step that you make," he said.
Nominated senator Beatrice Kwamboka weighed into the matter asking Gitura if there is anything he was not telling the committee.
"Is there anything fishy that you are hiding?" she posed.
But Gitura said that any lawyer who has allegations must always prove.
"Don't tell me that I am hiding something," a visible angry Gitura said.
But Kwamboka interjected saying that the chairman should not scold him.
"...you are not in order to lecture me...you are here to answer questions," Kwamboka said.
Gitura said : "I cannot answer and yes or no.. " Before he could finish talking, his mic was turned off.
After a while, Gitura said he did not know about the "Covid-19 Billionaires" that is being talked about.
"I don't know who these billionaires are ...but I know our suppliers, what they supplied and for how much," he said.
He further asked the chairperson of the senate committee to protect him.
"Madam chair I need your protection... I think this committee is unfair to me and the board... Don't threaten me..." he said.
On Thursday, Gitura appeared to throw Health Principal Secretary Susan Mochache under the bus with regards to the Covid-19 procurement.
He told the National Assembly Health Committee how Mochache wrote to the agency trying to direct how to procure the Covid-19 emergency supplies.
In her letter dated April 15, Mochache specified to Kemsa the items they were to procure, listed specific suppliers they were to source them from, as well as the prices.
Through the letter, which Kemsa officials termed as unusual, Mochache authorised the procurement of goods worth Sh758.7 million.
Gitura said Sh300 million was for procurement of locally manufactured reusable face masks while Sh77 million was spent on PCR kits of the allocated Sh88.9 million.
He explained that Sh304 million was used to settle payments for some items – which was part of the Sh758 million Mochache gave instructions on.
MPs also raised questions about the involvement of Kilig Ltd, which was touted to have supplied items worth Sh4 billion.