Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki and Attorney General Justin Muturi were on Wednesday, January 11, dragged to court over a tender that was awarded to a number of insurance companies in the country.
Two activists, Chrispine Onyango and Henry Shitanda pleaded with High Court Judge Hedwig Ongudi to stop Treasury from releasing any funds to a consortium of insurance companies.
The two argued that the law was not followed when the Ksh8.7 billion tender was awarded to a group of companies to provide the National Police service and Kenya prisons services with medical cover.
"Even where members of NPS and KPS elected to obtain enhanced medical cover, the same can only be offered under NHIF since only NHIF has the direct mandate to offer medical insurance of any kind to government agencies," they claimed.
According to Onyango and Shitanda, the government was in contravention of section 15 (5) of the NHIF Act, noting that the tender aims at profiteering a few individuals' firms.
"In doing this the Principal Administrative Secretary also breached the requirements of Section 44(1) of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act no. 33 of 2015 which bestows primary responsibility on the Accounting Officer to ensure that all procurement conducted within any public entity complies with the Act," the activists avowed.
Ministry of Interior, National Police Service and the Kenya Police Service in December 2022, called on service providers to place a bid for medical insurance coverage for the members of the national police service and the Kenya police service.
The ministry underscored that only insurance service providers, a consortium of insurance underwriters or public entities were qualified to place a bid.
Two weeks later the tender was awarded to a consortium composed of three insurance service providers.
Onyango and Shitanda challenged the decision, claiming that the tender was unprocedurally issued to the consortium.
"The respondents whose employees are public servants have abdicated a well-known medical cover (NHIF) and gone against the law to advertise and issue the tender to private firms," court documents underscored.
However, Justice Ongundi declined to issue an order stopping the Principal administrative secretary of NPS and any other principal accounting officers from making any payment to the insurance companies.
Instead, the court ordered the petitioners to serve the respondents within three days, and appear for mention on January 17, 2023, for further directions.
