Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has pledged to pull out all the stops to dismantle the intricate web of powerful cartels running the show at Afya House.
In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview with the Star, Kagwe admitted the presence of a powerful ‘faceless’ cartels that have infiltrated the ministry and blocked reforms.
The treacherous clique, the CS believes, is a group of powerful individuals who have permeated the ministry to control strategic positions and manage billions of shillings for personal gain.
“There are those who have penetrated the institution over a long time. We are not talking about people who entered there last month. We are talking about people who are doing what they have done in the last 20 years or so,” Kagwe said.
Kagwe spoke at a time when Afya House and the agencie under it are embroiled in graft allegations over the mismanagement of Covid-19 funds.
On Friday, the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority board suspended CEO Jonah Manjari to pave way for the probe by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission over alleged tendering irregularities.
Manjari was suspended alongside head of procurement Charles Juma and commercial director Eliud Mureithi.
Revealing his plan to clean up Afya House, the CS said he is determined to crush the elements resisting his efforts to reform and retore order to the ministry.
“What I can promise Kenyans is that we will fight these cartels and we are fighting these cartels,” he said.
Kagwe disclosed that he has transferred more than 60 senior officials at the ministry over four months to weaken the gangs’ grip.
Further, he has invited the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the EACC to probe top officials believed responsible for the mess at the ministry.
“As we speak today, DCI is active in the Ministry of Health. The Anti-Corruption commission is also active at my invitation,” he said.
The former Nyeri senator said were it not for his swift intervention, much worse would have happened at the ministry as it grapples to control Covid-19 and prudently spend funds to tame the disease.
The CS said though he does not know the details, he believes the cartels are a group of individuals who have stayed in their positions for decades and have resisted transfers.
“If I actually knew who they were, we would have gotten rid of them from the word go,” Kagwe said.
“We have asked people to leave. Some people have gone to court, refusing to leave the ministry. Some of those people were fired in 2007. They were transferred in 2007. They have been to court not less than six, seven, eight times to stay where they are,” he told the Star.
“And you must ask yourself, ‘Why?’ Why would you fight so hard to stay in a place when you work for the Kenyan government and part of your contract says you can be transferred to other places?” the CS asked.
So powerful and relentless are the cartels, the CS disclosed, that they have attempted to drive a wedge between him and his PS Susan Mochache and other ministry officials to perpetuate their plunder.
“There have been attempts to divide us at the ministry so they can continue whatever is it they want to do,” he said.
The CS talked about the emotive debate on the management of billions of shillings channeled to his ministry by the National Treasury and donors to aid the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
The ministry has been criticised by netizens over how officials have spent the billions as the numbers of cases increase.
But Kagwe said his administration has been unfairly attacked by people who do not understand what the Covid 19 Fund entails and the role of the ministry in managing the funds.
The Fund, he said, is used to build access roads in slums, send out stipends to some 300,000 families every week [Sh2,000 per family], pay police allowances for manning quarantine and isolation centres, among other missions.
“Within the Covid Fund are payments being made for all sorts of things. We are constructing, for example, 20 hospitals as we speak within Nairobi in all the slum areas,” the CS said.
Kagwe said the ministry retains a small percentage of the funds, with the bulk being channelled to the counties, other ministries and various hospitals to buy PPEs, reagents and other requirements to fight the virus.
He reckoned that some politicians who condemn the ministry and its agencies over use of the funds are bitter because they lost out on tenders, while some are playing politics.
“If you were denied the project or something and you attack the institution that denied you the project, are you talking out of oversight [concerns] or are you talking out of a personal issue?” he asked.
Kagwe also talked about the increasing infections in Kenya, counties’ preparedness to fight the pandemic and the challenges the country is facing in testing samples.
The CS expressed concerns that people are not adhering to the safety protocols issued by the Ministry.
“There are many Kenyans who are breaking the regulations and breaking the law and not assisting us in containing this virus. We have seen it and we have seen the result,” he said.
“As a government, our responsibility is to help you choose the right thing. When you hear of personal responsibility, it is actually that choice – to live or to die,” he said.
Kagwe said, however, the counties have shown a high level of preparendess to fight the contagion and the country now is able to produce enough PPEs.
“Out of 100 per cent, I would put it [that we are] at least 65 per cent ready. This is an average because there are some counties that are very ready,” he said. The CS cited Mombasa, Embu, Kakamega and Kisii, which have set up quarantine and isolation facilities as well as ICU and HDU or high-dependence units.
Kagwe said it was difficult to estimate when Kenya will hit its peak, saying each county will reach the apex of cases at different times.
“Let’s be clear that the virus is within the community. We have got what we call the community spread within Nairobi and other places.
“The most important thing [for me] as Minister in this Ministry, has been to try and make sure that our health facilities are not overrun so we can grow our capacity as the disease is growing,” he said.
The CS said all counties have received money to fight the virus and urged the leadership of the counties that have not met the basic standards to strive harder before the cases overcome them.
The government and governors agreedeach county should have at least 300 isolation beds.
Kagwe said the scarcity of reagents, caused by overreliance on imports, has slowed testing for the virus.
“We can test a lot of persons but then our problem has been reagents, the stuff we need to carry carry out a test,” he said.
The CS said most labs use ‘closed system’ equipment that use only reagents from their manufacturers. The turnaround time for alternative manual testing is very long.
“If you don’t get those reagents in the automatic machines, then you resort to Chinese reagents that are largely manual tests. Then it limits the number of tests we are able to do,” he said.