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{
    "id": 1124825,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1124825/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 375,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wambua",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13199,
        "legal_name": "Enoch Kiio Wambua",
        "slug": "enoch-kiio-wambua"
    },
    "content": "Kenyans were living under the fear of death every minute, to those people, may a curse fall on them because that is what they deserve. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I appreciate the magnitude of work that the Committee on Health had to do initially with the Ad-Hoc Committee on COVID-19. For them to have pulled through after the expiry of the time of the Ad-Hoc committee, I congratulate them. I want to make a few comments on the observations and their recommendations. It is very clear and this report says it that there was never due diligence carried out on companies that were procuring to supply to KEMSA. It would appear like everybody was in a rush to get tenders to supply KEMSA. Companies that had been registered for just a few months were being awarded tenders worth Kshs900 million. Nobody was looking back to question the capacity of those companies to supply KEMSA. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, arising from that lack of due diligence and coupled with a deliberate move to overprice the goods supplied, by the end of 2020, KEMSA was already counting losses to a tune of Kshs2 billion. It had bought medical equipment and goods of low quality at very high rates that they were even unable to sell to counties. That is conspiracy in which we lost two important things. One is that on account of that conspiracy, we lost many lives and a lot of money. For the loss of lives and money, somebody must be held responsible. It cannot be that it is okay, it happened. No, it cannot be. Somebody must pay for the cost of the lives and money we lost. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I like the recommendations by the Committee top of which is to investigate the CEO of KEMSA. That is where the buck stops. I have just listened to my colleague, the Senator for Nandi County, saying that today we were treated to some news of the arrest of the immediate former boss at prisons on account of an escape of three dangerous criminals. That is okay. In fact, I wish the prison’s boss would have resigned without having to wait to be fired. In this country we must develop a culture where people in positions of leadership take responsibility for the mess in their offices. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I am not sure whether I am hoping against hope. This report was tabled in March this year. We are now debating it. I do not want to anticipate the outcome of the debate, but it appears like this report will be adopted. I then would expect that from tomorrow or even today before midnight, those people recommended for investigation and arrest should be arrested and prosecuted for the mess that they caused at KEMSA. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, these companies, some of them with really funny names, were awarded tenders worth hundreds of millions of shillings. We cannot sit pretty and say we tendered, got the awards, supplied and the officers at KEMSA received and accepted the supplies. We cannot allow that to happen. The directors of these companies must be held to account."
}