He left the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) under a cloud of controversy, hounded out of office as its chief executive over his alleged role in the multibillion-shilling Covid-19 scandal.
Now, Mr Jonah Manjari Mwangi has been shortlisted for the position of Chief Officer, Service Delivery Unit in the county.
A close ally of Governor Kimani Wamatangi, Mr Manjari is set to face the County Public Service Board next Tuesday amid a bitter row within the county administration over his selection.
“Yes, I had applied for the position and I have just seen that I have been shortlisted,’’ Mr Manjari told Nation yesterday.
The Service Delivery Unit is a lucrative docket in the county government. A chief officer is equivalent to a principal secretary in the national government and acts as the accounting officer for the department.
Lucrative contracts
Retired President Uhuru Kenyatta overhauled the Kemsa board of directors in April 2021 after a multibillion-shilling scandal broke out at the height of the pandemic. A clique of well-heeled “tenderpreneurs” had awarded themselves lucrative contracts but supplied nothing. Mr Manjari’s impending interview has brought the administration under sharp focus, especially on service delivery.
The new appointee will come to a docket that’s facing serious upheavals. A man increasingly under siege, Governor Wamatangi’s administration is being run by officials who served under his predecessor, Mr James Nyoro. His list of ten County Executive Committee nominees were twice rejected by MCAs.
Half of them would later sail through, while the other five are the subject of a petition filed at the Kiambu High Court seeking to overturn their appointment.
The petition has been filed by the Bunge Mashinani lobby on grounds that the decision by the governor to appoint them after they had been rejected by the county assembly was illegal and unprocedural. The ward reps have accused Mr Wamatangi of high-handedness. They claim he has failed to address their concerns on bursary disbursement and the poor state of hospitals.
Poor working conditions
Last week, the medics picketed outside the governor’s office citing poor working conditions, delayed salaries and an alleged change of their medical cover from the National Hospital Insurance Fund to a private firm
Mr Wamatangi has on previous occasions declined to comment on the issues when reached for comment.
The health row has drawn the attention of Thika Town MP Alice Ng’ang’a and her Gatundu South counterpart Gabriel Kagombe, who have given an ultimatum to Mr Wamatangi to fix the healthcare mess in the county, “failure to which we will match to his office”.
“The Thika Level Five Hospital is in a sorry state. There are no drugs and other medical supplies, it suffers from chronic under-staffing. It is dirty and even the laboratories are not operational. It’s an empty shell that everyone is running away from,” Ms Ng’ang’a told reporters at the weekend.
Mr Kagombe further claimed that all hospitals in his constituency are in bad shape, citing lack of drugs and other supplies. BY DAILY NATION