The Ministry of Health received only a small percentage of the funds set aside to combat COCID-19, CS Mutahi Kagwe has said.
Appearing before the National Assembly’s Health Committee, the Health Cabinet Secretary said the ministry received about 15 percent of the total funds. Kagwe and PS Susan Mochache appeared before the committee to face questions regarding the disbursement of COVID-19 funds to counties.
The CS explained that the Health Ministry was not responsible for all the funds, contrary to reports in the media.
“COVID-19 funds are not health ministry funds…Money assigned to MOH is about 15 per cent of the COVID-19 fund…it is being made to look like 15 per cent is 100 per cent,” Kagwe said.
“On the issue of accountability, when we (MOH) disburse funds, there is clarity on what should be done…it is not conditional…as a ministry, we do not have accountability on it as it comes from Treasury.”
PS Mochache told the committee that the ministry received Ksh1.5 billion from Treasury which it released to KEMSA for the provision of testing kits and reagents.
She said the ministry received an additional Ksh300 million which it transferred to KEMSA for the procurement of reusable masks to vulnerable people.
Treasury also disbursed a further Ksh200 million towards operations in quarantine facilities.
Mochache said Ksh3 billion of the ministry’s supplementary budget was disbursed to various facilities across the country among them KNH (Ksh600 million), KU Hospital (Ksh500 million), Mandera hospital (Ksh300 million), Coast General Hospital (Ksh500 million), MTRH (Ksh400 million), JOOTRH (Ksh400 million), and Kitui hospital (Ksh300 million).
The Ministry of Health(MoH) also received Ksh5 billion from the national government which was disbursed to all the 47 counties as conditional grants, Mochache said.
“As MOH released the funds, it communicated accordingly to counties that the money was expected to be spent on counties to prepare emergency response plan, building capacity for isolation and quarantine support and training of health workers,” she said.
CS Kagwe noted that investigations are still ongoing over KEMSA procurement issues and the medical equipment donated by Jack Ma. He urged the public to avoid “fiction and innuendos.”
