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{
    "id": 1034854,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1034854/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 332,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kipipiri, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Amos Kimunya",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 174,
        "legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
        "slug": "amos-kimunya"
    },
    "content": "You may recall and it has been highlighted here that His Excellency the President, Uhuru Kenyatta, directed that investigations be done and a report on the expenditure of the COVID-19 Fund is prepared. I am glad the Committee has reinforced this call and I believe that even when we receive the report from Public Investments Committee and the report of the Senate Committee and all other committees that are looking at this, the message will be the same. Let us have this investigation expedited. That is what we needed to get, so that we do not look at newspaper headlines which have their own motives or do not look at reports by some extortionist editors which have their own motives. We should have a formal report to say that we put in so much money in KEMSA. What did it do with the money? There is debate as to what would have happened if, for example, KEMSA had decided that it does not have money, so they could not buy PPEs and the escalation of the pandemic found that we did not have PPEs yet the only body that is mandated to purchase was sitting idle because there was no money. Those are some of the things we need to look at, but that is for the investigators to look at extenuating circumstances. I read and seem to get the impression of KEMSA arguing that they bought PPEs at the prevailing market rate then, which was very expensive then because they did not want to be caught as a country without adequate stocks. In the event, globally, supply chains were enhanced to respond to the global pandemic and the production cost went down and prices went down. However, the poor KEMSA, with its rigidity in purchasing, found itself with all these stocks of highly priced items which the Committee is now recommending. Perhaps, we need not start blaming the chicken that was eaten because it headed straight to the mongoose. We need to start thinking of the best thing to do. We have PPEs and we have sick people. We must sort them out because it will not change the values. That is paperwork but, at least, we have PPEs in the country that we can use. They were bought for purposes of mitigating potential loss. Hence I support the Committee’s recommendation on that aspect."
}