On Wednesday, September 9, detectives from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commision (EACC) raided the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA) headquarters on Commercial Street, Nairobi following the Covid-19 graft scandal.
The detectives sealed off the area with visitors not allowed to get into the premises and employees locked inside.
An employee who spoke to the media from inside the premises indicated that the detectives were taking away computers and documents in the presence of tight security.
EACC is investigating how tenders worth billions were awarded out to firms by KEMSA.
KEMSA chief executive officer Jonah Manjari, Eliud Muriithi (commercial director) and Charles Juma (procurement director) have since stepped aside to allow investigations to take place.
The raid came a day after officials from Kemsa were quizzed over the handling of drugs and other goods meant to address the Covid-19 pandemic.
For over seven hours, the board, led by the chairman Kembi Gitura, was grilled on the contentious award of multi-billion tenders.
On August 31, 2020, President Uhuru Kenyatta directed the Ministry of Health to make public all the tenders procured by Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA) for transparency purposes within 30 days.
"This level of transparency through the use of technology will go a very long way towards ensuring that we have confidence of people that those placed in institutions are able to manage resources of our taxpayers," he stated.
Uhuru indicated that the process would enable the public to be in the know on who was awarded a tender, the value of the tender, what the tender was for, monitor progress of the tender, how it was evaluated, monitor other bids and who was finally awarded the tender.
