Men behind NHIF hospital saga blame rivals for hitches
NHIF Building in Nairobi's Upper Hill on March 29, 2012. Photo/Billy Mutai
What you need to know:
Proprietors of Baseline Architects and Ujenzi Consultants say private hospitals are lobbying to have Sh23 billion referral facility abandoned.
A brief presented to Parliament by NHIF chief executive officer, Simon ole Kirgotty, suggested the consultants were hired by former CEO Ibrahim Hussein without the board’s approval.
The two firms have a long history of dealings with NHIF. For the proposed medical centre project, Ujenzi has been paid Sh185.6 million separately and another Sh228.4 million jointly with Baseline Architects.
Private consultants at the heart of a Sh4.7 billion claim against the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) for a dubious referral hospital project in Karen have defended their contracts as being above board.
Proprietors of Baseline Architects and Ujenzi Consultants said the bad press surrounding the project was part of a scheme by private health facilities to block NHIF from entering their perceived turf.
“We have no problem with our client (NHIF). Private healthcare interests stand to lose a lot from the proposed medical centre and that is why they are fighting it through their proxies in government,” said Baseline Architects owner Morris Gitonga Njue.
Rebman Ambalo Malala, a quantity surveyor and the owner of Ujenzi Consultants, said the contracts for the referral hospital were properly commissioned.
“We were properly commissioned,” Mr Malala said, declining to comment further on the matter. NHIF has paid out more than Sh1.5 billion to consultants, engineers, and lawyers engaged in the referral hospital project conceived 11 years ago.
The fund is at a crossroads on whether to continue with the Sh22.6 billion project, which has continued being pushed by the Ministry of Health despite its rejection by the Treasury.
A brief presented to Parliament by NHIF chief executive officer, Simon ole Kirgotty, suggested the consultants were hired by former CEO Ibrahim Hussein without the board’s approval.
The two firms have a long history of dealings with NHIF. Ujenzi, for instance, undertook quantity survey work for the construction of the fund’s headquarters in Upper Hill.
For the proposed medical centre project, Ujenzi has been paid Sh185.6 million separately and another Sh228.4 million jointly with Baseline Architects.
Mr Malala currently lives in Karen Plains in a house that was at one time valued at Sh60 million by the contractors. He also has a mixed development of residential and commercial property in Karen. He is also said to own substantial parcels of land in Narok by people familiar with his assets.
Mr Njue started dealing with NHIF around 2002 when the saga surrounding the proposed medical centre began. His firm, Baseline Architects, was paid Sh162 million separately and another Sh250.1 million jointly with Ujenzi and PKF Consulting.
The former civil servant has a 99.98 per cent stake in Baseline, with Mercy Gitonga and Lewis Muturi each owning 0.006 per cent of the company.
Registration details list other Baseline directors as Timothy Wanjohi and Donnie Otieno. The claim of Sh4.7 billion by the consortium is to be verified by the Ministry of Public Works where Mr Njue previously worked as an architect.
“The pending consultant fees will be determined upon verification by the Ministry of Public Works,” reads part of the report on the stalled medical centre.
Mr Njue has a substantial portfolio of real estate in Nairobi, including a health club in Karen, and Chuka town. He bears the nickname Morry in his social circles. Mr Njue attended Chuka High School and Shimo la Tewa High School and later joined University of Nairobi where he graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture degree.
Mr Njue hit back at allegations that the consultants were illegally hired, saying NHIF produced minutes of a board meeting at an arbitration which showed it approved of the commissioning of consultants for the project.
He said the facility is envisaged to offer high quality treatment and medical care that will rival popular medical destinations like India and South Africa.
Mr Njue added that the hospital is also designed to provide more cost-effective services, likely upsetting existing cost structures, especially among private hospitals.
Other individuals involved in the referral hospital project are Nyagah Boore Kithinji and Charles Maina Mwangi of Costwise Associates, another consultant paid millions of shillings.
Another firm Friscan Construction Management – the project manager for the hospital — is solely owned by one Francis Odhiambo Guya whose nationality is given as “African.” The company was registered on January 21, 1997.
Former Medical Services minister Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o was identified in a report as rooting for the contractors to be paid, with the minister transforming the planned resource centre into a medical institution.
The former Office of the Prime Minister also echoed Prof Nyong’o’s support for the stalled project and went further to suggest that funding for the Sh22.6 billion institution could be sourced from the Chinese government.
Residents of Karen allege that the sale of land in the area to NHIF for Sh93.7 million in 2002 for construction of a staff recreational centre that later mutated into the proposed medical centre was itself irregular.
It is claimed that the land — measuring about 23 acres — was part of open space for residents but that it was grabbed by a current senior government official jointly with some of the individuals forming the consortium of NHIF consultants.
The land is currently the subject of lawsuits by various parties staking a claim to it, exposing the State-owned fund to potential losses.
NHIF has not disclosed the size of land it acquired for the amount which residents say was way below the market rate, signalling a cheap disposal by the alleged grabbers.
