The Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Amendment) Bill 2021 seeks to change the law and give counties a free hand in choosing suppliers for drugs and medical kits for their hospitals.
If approved by MPs, the changes will hit the Kemsa sales and open the doors for private drug firms.
Senators have backed a Bill that seeks to end the monopoly of the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) in the delivery of drugs and equipment to county hospitals.
The Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Amendment) Bill 2021 seeks to change the law and give counties a free hand in choosing suppliers for drugs and medical kits for their hospitals.
The law currently prohibits counties from procuring drugs outside the Kemsa. If approved by MPs, the changes will hit the Kemsa sales and open the doors for private drug firms.
The Bill, sponsored by Naomi Shiyonga (Nominated) will remove the provision that requires counties to procure drugs and medical supplies from the authority as the first point of call.
“The repeal of the provision will allow county governments to procure drugs and medical supplies from suppliers other than the authority thereby ensuring adequate fill rates for both drugs and medical supplies,” Ms Shiyonga said while moving debate on the Bill.
She said the repeal of section 4 of the Kemsa Act 2013 will not create a lacuna in law since section 67(3) of the Health Act provides that the Kemsa may be the point of the first call for the procurement of health products at the county referral level and it shall establish branches within each county at such locations as it may determine.
Ms Shiyonga said the proposed amendment would allow counties to procure their own drugs at competitive rates and without looking at Kemsa to give them directions.
“The Bill entrenches devolution and the House must ensure that resources are devolved because the health function has been devolved,” nominated Senator Halake Abshiro said during a special sitting on Tuesday.
The Senators called for an end to the Kemsa monopoly which has seen counties receive drugs that are nearing expiry due to bureaucracy in the distribution of the drugs.
The Bill, which sailed through the Second Reading comes at a time when Kemsa is facing an overhaul after it was hit by a Covid procurement scandal.
The latest report from the Auditor-General shows that counties owed Kemsa Sh2.64 billion in June 2019 which was twice the amount owed by the Ministry of Health, highlighting the lucrative business that Kemsa gets from the devolved units.
The changes come amid pressure from county chiefs who have in recent months pushed Parliament to amend the law and allow them to bypass Kemsa in procuring drugs and medical kits citing delayed supplies from the State agency.
Counties have in recent times blamed Kemsa for biting shortage of drugs and kits at their hospitals amid the ballooning bills that the devolved units owe the State agency.
Kemsa has stepped up efforts to ease the supply hitches facing counties after it unveiled four distribution centres in Nairobi, Kisumu, Mombasa and Meru that will be used as the dispatch centres for drugs and medical equipment to all public hospitals in the counties.
The Kisumu centre will serve 19 counties, the one in Mombasa supply six counties while the Meru centre will serve 11 counties in the northern frontier. Nairobi will supply 11 of the remaining 11 counties.
