Last week the Nairobi Governor, Mike Sonko asked the DCI and the DPP to look into the KEMSA-NAirobi county debt hat is accumulating up to 300 shillings that has collapsed the supply of drugs in facilities in the City.
The governor went ahead to threaten the supplying agent that his government would consider getting another supplier if the institution was not going to recheck into how the debt was reached at.
The Nairobi county government failed to supply drugs and other non-pharmaceutical items to sub-county pharmacists and health facilities, according to the audit report.
In the year 2017/2019, the health facilities were to receive Sh 107, 525, 922 but the money was not disbursed and no reason was given during the audit.
The Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) cut the supply over a Sh309 million debt that it is yet to recover from the county.
County Deputy Director for Medical Services Irene Muchoki told the public health services committee that the finance department had not honored an agreement where it was to pay Kemsa Sh30 million a month.
According to the audit, the health facilities were stocking expired drugs which are a hazard to the resident of Nairobi and its environs.
According to the report, the last time the health facilities received any drug was in September last year and that many of them are grappling with drug shortage.
According to Muchoki, her department received Sh747 million in the current financial year. Of this, only Sh70 million was used to repay the debt that has accrued since 2014.
The county’s medical certificate unit has also failed to issue medical certifications to food handlers in the city.
This has been attributed to the fact that the county lacks funds to purchase laboratory commodities, certificate books, toners, and stationery.
The suppliers of certificate books, toners, and stationery have stopped supplying to the county due to the millions of shillings the county owns.
“I paid for my license in January and until now I have not received the certificate. They told me the certificate books have not been printed. On further inquiring, I was told the supply stopped since the county has a lot of his money,” said a business vendor in the CBD.