President Uhuru Kenyatta has directed the Ministry of Health to come up with a transparent mechanism through which all tenders and procurement done by Kemsa are available online within the next 30 days.
"The ministry should come up with a transparent, open method through which tenders done by Kemsa are available online," he said.
Speaking during a virtual conference on Monday, Uhuru said the ministry should do this for transparency purposes.
"...so that we can see who has awarded the tender and who was evaluated among others," he said.
"This is an issue to all government procurement departments.. we need to work together .. "
Uhuru said this will ensure that Kenya has the confidence of its people.
"Kenyan people have a right to know how their funds are being utilised," he said.
This comes after Kemsa board chairman Kembi Gitura was last week hard-pressed to explain how the agency would offload a stock of PPE and other supplies worth Sh6.2 billion lying in its stores.
Taxpayers are staring at the possibility of losing Sh2 billion from the purchases as the same was done at the high prices that prevailed when Covid-19 first struck.
Gitura said the sales went down after counties started purchasing their own PPEs following a directive by the President.
“We procured in good faith. Although the Kemsa Act says counties must procure from Kemsa, the President opened the window for county governments to buy from outside.”
