An entire government board with eight seats was sent home after Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe refused to renew its contract.
The CS told the Senate ad-hoc Committee that he would not renew the contract for Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB) demanding a change of its governance structure.
The board had been inaugurated by former Health CS Cleopa Mailu in 2017 and its contract had ended in March 2020.
Kagwe argued that the structure of the board was making it ineffective and incapable of providing guidance and was not responsive to modern trends.
"Boards are appointed for the purposes of directing and Guiding institutions. This one has failed largely because of the way it is structured," he stated.
Kagwe was appearing before the committee constituted to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, chaired by Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja.
The board is mandated with regulating the practice of Pharmacy and the manufacture and trade in drugs and poisons.
It is also the only entity that certifies the standards of medical equipment before deployment for use in health facilities - a function of critical importance during the Covid-19 period.
“You must embrace technology, build capacity within the board, cultivate trust with all stakeholders, and maintain standards and efficiency to be able to achieve the board’s mandate," stated Mailu in 2017 when the board was constituted.
Members who were inaugurated to the board were Dr Jackson Kioko (Chairman), Dr Kipkerich Chuma Koskei (Chief Pharmacist), Dr Kisa Juma Ngeiywa (Director of Veterinary Services), Dr Alfred Rugendo Birichi, Dr Mary Nthambi Kisingu, Dr Rogers Atebe, Dr Edith Wakori and Mr Abdi Omar Jama.
The development came just a day after the CS was under fire for demoting Dr Joel Lutomiah, who headed the Kenya Medical Research Institute's (Kemri) Centre for Virus Research.
The former director had been accused by the CS of failing to provide Covid-19 data in time for his daily briefing.
