Principal Secretary of Medical Services Harry Kimtai has found himself in the midst of a complex corruption investigation by Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) into the alleged Sh634.4 million fraud by Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) chief executive officer Dr Evanson Njoroge Kamuri.
Dr. Kamuri who has been put under probe, has had his two bank accounts frozen with cumulative Sh28 million after EACC obtained orders to freeze them pending investigation of corruption and procurement scams by the anti graft body.
The two bank accounts are at Housing Finance Company (HF) and the court allowed the EACC to access the bank accounts and obtain information relating to withdrawals and deposits among other documents.
Mr Paul Mugwe, an investigator asked the court to grant him the order so that he can look at the account opening documents, statements, cheques, deposit slips, and payment vouchers among others
The investigator said preliminary investigations revealed that Dr Kamuri as the CEO of KNH, engaged in abuse of office, conflict of interest, and procurement irregularities in two tenders.
PS Kimutai has been mentioned in a dossier received by the commission by whistleblowers leading to the freezing of Dr. Kimuri’s accounts.
The report implicates the PS for his alleged role in trying to help the CEO escape accountability and furthermore that he received money from the besieged Kimuri to buy off MPs who were hot on his tail in the probe of controversial oxygen gas plant in the national facility.
“Out of the unfolding, Dr Kamuri and PS Public Health Harry Kimutai approached the parliamentary health committee for rescue. The PS demanded 20M to assist Dr Kamuri cover the scandal. The money was delivered to the PS on 3rd April. Parliamentary committee was sorted 80M through the Chuka and Nyeri members of parliament.” part of the report obtained by Kenya Insights reads.
The report further claims that PS Kimutai is part of the larger scheme to disband the board saying he has sniffed the proceeds of corruption.
“The PS, after consuming the chunks of money and enjoying the soft life provided by the KNH looters, is now threatening and bulldozing the board of management and threatening to disband them. He has introduced a new way of looting that we will share shortly.” the report adds.
In the report, Dr. Kimuri has been accused of mismanaging the hospital and getting away with after heavy bribery.
“Kamuri has used parliamentary health committee, PS Harry Kimutai, and the office of the head of public service to maneuver his way, buy renewal of his loyal crafty directors’ employment contracts to have them stay to continue looting. KNH is now run like a dispensary despite having the best of professionals in East and central Africa.” it says.
The whistleblower now warns of a total collapse of the key facility despite spirited schemes to clothe the mess.
“After spending monies stolen from the hospital to cover a series of scandals in EACC, DCI and office of Felix Koskei, the chicken has come home to roost. Even if parliament forces commission of the plant, months down the plant will collapse and it shall be messy.”
Oxygen Gas Plant
(Tender Nos MOH/ONT/CHERO/003/2021-2022) for the supply, delivery, installation testing and commission of a medical oxygen generating plant, which was given to Biomax Africa Ltd is one of the tenders being probed that has now put Kimuri in trouble.
Parliament threats to dissolve KNH board
Last month, Members of Parliament had threatened to table a motion in the National Assembly to disband the Kenyatta National Hospital Board for interfering with the process of setting up a new multi-million shilling oxygen plant at the facility.
The Departmental Committee on Health chaired by Endebess MP Robert Pukose, accused the Board, led by Sameer Muravej of halting the process, because of personal interests.
Interestingly, at a meeting with PS Kimtai and KNH Board members, the committee accused Muravej of abusing his powers when he terminated the deal which had been awarded way before he took over office on grounds that the contractor was his former business partner.
Muravej kicked out
However, the acknowledgment by Muravej did not sit well with the MPs, who kicked him out of the meeting for advancing personal interests on such a big project which would have been beneficial to Kenyans.
“You should have declared your conflict of interests from the start. This committee can no longer take your submissions into account. I now want you to recuse yourself from this committee,” Pukose said.
Committee vice-chair and Chuka Igambang’ombe MP Patrick Munene reminded the two bodies that President William Ruto had warned State agencies and parastatals board not to overstep their mandates.
“Is there any conflict of interest in this board when it comes to KNH tenders because we are now seeing them interfering with the day-to-day operations of the management?” he posed.
Incidentally, MPs’ threats came after Kimtai, who faulted the KNH Board for usurping their powers, told the members that he would be taking action against the Board for interfering with the management role.
To support this, he claimed any further delays in the implementation of the contract will attract extra cost given that the contractor had only been paid 67 per cent of the funds owed.
The oxygen plant scandal
The whistleblower report now warns that Kenyans are about to lose over Sh500 million annually in the faulty oxygen plant that is said to have been an unholy deal between Sr. Kimuri and Biomax Africa Ltd, the contractor behind the controversial project.
The report says a pre-shipment analysis tour was conducted in Novair facility located in Paris by Kenyan team led by Director, Supply Chain management, KNH Mrs. Rose Njoroge and saw the equipment and confirmed that it met 100% conformance to the provided tender specifications. The plant was expected to be functional by December 2023 and was intended to produce 8000 Litres of oxygen per minute at the specified levels of product purity.
However, the machine has failed to give the intended levels of production and the best it can produce is 2800LPM, which is below average.
The whistleblower report implicated the contractor in the larger fraud scheme on Dr. Kamuri.
“The contractor, criminally, delivered a substandard plant that cannot perform as per expectations, and has failed in all parameters. The plant is also not able to measure oxygen purity and has been pumping unqualified product to the hospital oxygen system, another criminal commission owing to the fact that the machine flow meters have never been calibrated, which is a professional misconduct.”
“Tests done privately indicate that the oxygen in KNH is currently below the acceptable minimum purity levels, which is not only dangerous to patients but SUICIDAL. The KNH management, completely aware of these facts and the correct status of the plant, has decided to bully and manipulate the Project Implementation Committee into accepting the substandard oxygen plant, even after being informed that the plant has failed to qualitatively and quantitatively meet the specifications set in the tender document.”
“As this is not enough, KNH management decided to utilize public funds and swap with cash from the contractor. Power connection to the plant was supposed to be facilitated by the contractor to the existing infrastructure. The contractor deliberately kept silent about the issue and the CEO approved use of KNH funds to procure a transformer to connect to the plant. It’s very inexplicable how Kamuri offered to procure this for the contractor despite the fact that a site visit was done before the tender closed and the bidder never raised any issue before the tender closed.”
“This has raised queries on why the accounting officer would embezzle funds arrogantly even when it is clear the acts are illegal.”
“Additionally, the plant’s power consumption has doubled KNH electricity bill. The hospital will now pay an annual bill of around Kshs. 500Million up from 230M thanks to the oxygen plant. The plant consumes more than what KNH cumulatively consumes as an institution. Cheap is expensive.”
“Based on the above, it has become an uphill task for KNH management to explain how they allowed the contractor to install a plant completely different in all aspects from what was tendered for and what the pre-shipment inspection team was shown in the manufacturing facility in Paris.”
Kimuri and Njoroge Alliance
Rose Njoroge the supply chain director has been adversely mentioned in the report over his close association with Dr. Kimuri has is being blamed on the hospital’s mismanagement.
The confusion from the plant saga is said to have led to serious desperation on the side of the CEO and Director, Supply chain, a couple which the report say ‘has run down the hospital’.
“It has now been established that this has been done deliberately for the KNH management to cover for 65 Million given by the contractor to KNH management and an engineer from the ministry who was part of the pre-shipment team. The new KNH Board of management has on several occasions queried about the status of this plant, something that harshly doesn’t sit well with Dr Kamuri.” it adds.
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