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| Demostrators demanding for justice to those involved in Covid-19 funds corruption cases in Kenya Nairobi |
It all started by the health workers complained about shortage of public protective equipment (PPEs), saying their lives were at steak.
The state body responsible for procurements, the Kenya Medical Supply Authority (Kemsa), has denied that any money was stolen.
The investigations has centred around the alleged mis-use of $7.8m meant to purchase emergency PPE for healthcare workers and hospitals across the country.
Investigators from Kenya’s Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) say preliminary findings have shown that several laws on public procurement were flouted during the awarding of the tenders.
A man wearing a face mask walks past a mural depicting health workers by the Mathare Roots Society initiative group that uses the graffiti form of creative art to inform and sensitise the residents of Mathare slums.
In a report to a joint Senate Committee on Health and Covid-19 on Wednesday, the EACC said: “Investigations had established criminal culpability on the part of public officials in the purchase and supply of Covid-19 emergency commodities at Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) that led to irregular expenditure of public funds.”
The EACC has recommended the prosecution of all officials at Kemsa and the Ministry of Health who it believes were behind the scandal.
The investigations will also target companies that are alleged to have been benefiting from the supplies, currently there is no suggestion any of the companies misappropriated Covid-19 funds.
Documents submitted to the Senate committee, and which the APN has seen, show how the contracts were given by Kemsa.
In some cases, tenders were given to companies that had been formed just weeks earlier.
A good example is Shop and Buy limited, which, the documents allege, got tenders worth $10m despite being formed in February, just weeks before the first case of Covid-19 was reported in the country.
The company as of now the campony denies the allegations.
People all over Nairobi City, a capital of Kenya held peaceful demostrations to force the government to hold all the suspected accountable of all the allegations.
Police used Teargas to disperse the peaceful Marchers.
