The Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (Kemsa) is stuck with Covid-19 kits from donors like Chinese billionaire and Alibaba founder Jack Ma due to a lack of Health ministry guidelines on distributing donations.
Kemsa said the items composed of personal protective equipment, masks among others have been lying idle at its warehouse in Nairobi since April, hitting hard the country’s quest to fight Covid-19 pandemic.
The kits were donated by Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Slovakian government, Chinese government among other well-wishers.
The delay in their distribution comes at a time Kenya’s Covid-19 case-load stands at 84,169. The country's fatalities have risen to 1,474 after another five patients succumbed to the disease on Tuesday.
“We have not been able to distribute Covid-19 donations from well-wishers. We are still waiting for guidelines and a distribution list from the Ministry of Health for us to do anything,” Edward Njoroge, the Kemsa chief executive told the Senate Health Committee on Wednesday.
Kenya started receiving donations as early as March to aid in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic that has morphed into a financial crisis in country and global economies.
Bank such as UBA Kenya in April donated Sh15 million to aid in the fight against the coronavirus.
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