Kiambu Woman Representative Gathoni Wamuchomba on Monday evening, January 25, called out President Uhuru Kenyatta's team, the Presidential Delivery Unit (PDU), following a botched promise to young men who had been promised a tender to supply hospital beds.
Wamuchomba, a hitherto ardent supporter of Kenyatta, expressed disappointment in how the President's team handled the matter saying that the young team had been left wallowing in debts and were glaring at an auction.
"All the Head of PDU offered was arrogance, lies and non-committal promises (including threatening one of the partners of arrests claiming he's a conman)," reads the statement.
The president had promised to buy 500 beds from two Kenyan entrepreneurs, Mungai Gathogo, 26, and Joseph Muhinja, 35, following the rising cases of Covid-19 in 2020.
Months later, however, the duo complained that they were stuck with a loan of Ksh3.6 million which the bank and other creditors were demanding.
Wamuchomba, who attempted to mediate between the young entrepreneurs and PSU, publicly condemned the State House team and claimed they were behind the reported unpopularity of President Kenyatta in Kiambu County.
"Now I know why Uhuru Kenyatta is losing the political goodwill of young people in Kiambu...
"To the president, your Presidential Delivery Unit is a scam. Ask me for details of what was said today in the presence of the area DCC...total disregard of the young people!"
On his part, PDU Secretary Andrew Wakahiu said the government's intention to procure the locally manufactured hospital beds ran into headwinds after it emerged one of them was facing several criminal allegations.
"The revelations were made even as a visit to the workshop where the innovators claim to have been making and storing beds that have allegedly left them wallowing in debts showed little activity with only a single ready bed in sight," reads the statement.
He added that the government faced challenges processing the offer to procure the beds after obtaining intelligence that Gathogo was allegedly facing in at least three cases related to fraud and obtaining money by pretense.
In spite of the issues, Wakahiu indicated that the government offered to pay for the beds in the entire stock of what was ready.
However, a lorry hired to ferry the beds returned empty.
"We came here prepared to buy all the beds and other materials these young men claim to have made or procured. Regardless of the controversies around the young man and the firm’s ownership, as a Government, we don’t want their lives ruined by debt," Wakahiu said.
