Members of the National Assembly have finally taken action over the looming mass layoffs at the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa).
In their first course of action, MPs on Friday, November 5, announced a plan to summon the entire Kemsa to shed light on the fate of at least 600 members of their workforce who were sent home for 30 days amid restructuring.
Kemsa, which has a total workforce of 900, made it public that only 341 workers will be retained who are part of the essential service department.
The MPs revealed this move after a stakeholder meeting to deliberate on the high cost of healthcare in Kenya and the Health Laws Amendment Bill 2021. Murang'a Woman Representative, Sabina Chege, who is also the chairperson of the Select Committee on Health, stated that parliament will investigate the matter further.
"We want to know what the board has unearthed that has led to the sacking. We only looked into the issues of Covid-19 and procurement scandals but we didn't touch on the workers,” Sabina stated.
She noted that Parliament, just like the rest of the country, needs a detailed explanation on the criteria employed to send the workers home.
“We have no mandate over hiring or sacking but as Kenyans, we equally want to know what's happening at Kemsa. The board is new. They are yet to come to Parliament to explain to us what they are doing."
The board, she stated, will explain their plans after the mass sacking.
Following the action to send a huge number of the staff to work from home, personnel drawn from the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) and the National Youth Service (NYS) were deployed to take up some of the roles on a temporary basis.
Kemsa board chairperson, Mary Chao Mwadime, stated the move was informed by the agency's underperformance.
"This commitment includes aligning the organisational structure to industry-accepted standards for health commodities and technologies procurement organisation.
"It also calls for the introduction of global best practices, which include: acceptable span of control, transparent reporting relationships and command structures, compounding related functions for strengthened accountability and a re-determination of optimal staffing levels and norms," she stated.
