President William Ruto on Thursday, December 5, responded to the saga surrounding the Social Health Authority (SHA) mystery supplier.
While speaking during the Kilifi International Investment Conference, Ruto rebuffed reports of a looming scandal at SHA after it emerged that mystery suppliers were set to get billions for the lease of medical equipment in an agreement between counties and the Health Ministry.
The mystery stems from a claim by counties that they were put under duress to sign the lease agreement to mystery suppliers without following the proper procedures.
“There is a lot of fake news and incorrect information going around. The procurement of equipment that I see in the media; there was a procurement process that was carried out between the counties and the Ministry of Health,” Ruto noted.
“There is no obligation from any county to get any equipment from any supplier. Anybody who says that they (county governments) were forced by the national government to sign the supply contract, those are conmen and liars. Governor Mung’aro is here. Governor Abdulswamad and Fatuma are here. Ask them. There is nobody who forced them to sign the contract,” he added.
Dig Deeper: Council of Governors Vice Chair and Nyeri governor Mutahi Kahiga had claimed that counties had been forced to sign the contract amidst an aggravated push by the government to ensure the SHA rollout. Kahiga added that counties had little say on the matter as most counties do not have the financial capacity to procure the equipment.
So far 34 county governments are said to have signed the deal with details of the legal framework of the procurement process remaining scant.
“What they have done is to set 23 lots of equipment, so you pick a lot that you think is required for your specific hospital, after picking is when you know the providers, but whoever selected them was a program decided by the national government, we are just landlords,” Kahiga claimed.
In response, the Health Ministry through its Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa, went ahead to provide clarity on the leasing of medical equipment through the National Equipment Service Program.
Barasa informed that after the expiry of the Medical Equipment Service (MES) program in December 2023, the ministry and the COG came together to form a transition strategy to ensure continuity of the procurement process.
Barasa added that the strategy gave rise to the Fixed-Fee Service (FFS) model which would shift the financial responsibility of medical equipment from national/county governments to contracted vendors.
She noted that to operationalize the FFS model, a transparent tendering process was undertaken with the evaluation of the qualified bidders being conducted jointly by officials from the ministry, county government.
Following the evaluation, Barasa informed that the ministry ended up with seven qualified bidders who proceeded to enter into the lease agreements.
At the same time, Ruto went on to assure Kenyans of zero tolerance on graft in SHA. “I want to assure Kenyans that there will be no cases of graft for as long as I am president,” he affirmed.
Source: kENYANS.CO.KE