FALSE: Photo does not show the drought situation in Embolioi, Kajiado County, in October 2022
Admin By Shadrack Andenga odinga
Kenya Medical Supplies Authority on Friday suspended its CEO with his directors as ODM party Secretary General Edwin Sifuna dismissed claims of corruption at the organization.
Under pressure board Chairperson Kembi Gitura seemed concerned with the issue.
“We had a special board meeting to discuss issues to do with Covid-19 and realized that the public had an extreme interest in what’s going on, more so when it comes to procurement issues,” Mr Gitura said and added that three top officials were asked to step aside so as to allow the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to complete investigations on Covid-19 procurement irregularities and alleged misuse of funds.
The three are CEO Dr Jonah Manjari, directors Eliud Muriithi (Commercial) and Charles Jume (Procurement).
But on Saturday afternoon, Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Party dismissed claims of corruption, arguing that they are baseless and sensational.
The party also added that deputy president William Ruto is taking advantage of the situation to seek attention in a bid to sanitize his already bad name.
“We wonder how this can be so before a credible audit by the Auditor General is carried out to ascertain the veracity of these claims. The precedent has been set before, where the media goes on a sensationalist extravaganza, with half-baked information obtained from shadowy sources, ending up creating more problems than solutions,” said party Secretary General Edwin Sifuna who also added that claims of misappropriation of funds can only be ascertained after an audit by the Office of the Auditor-General is carried out.
Sifuna went ahead to criticize Deputy President William Ruto who had earlier issued a statement concerning the alleged stolen funds.
“It is disheartening to hear no less a senior government official than the Deputy President go public with the juvenile and improper statement that “at least now nobody will blame me for stealing Covid-19 funds”,” the SG said and emphasized that his statement suggested that it was okay for public funds to be misappropriated so long as it is not blamed on him.
Sifuna urged the DP to help President Uhuru Kenyatta crack the whip on corrupt cartels within the Jubilee administration, instead of seeking public attention on social media.
He finalized by urging Kenyans not to be irrational until the public gets an audit of everything that was involved in the Covid 19 saga at KEMSA..
