I have been tagged by a number of you reference the statement that was made by PS Treasury ref our fund that no funds reached treasury.
1. Yes I confirm there was No fund that was going to treasury from our kitty , if we raised and sent it to treasury it would have slowed our response ability since we now had to seek approval of the very funds we raised and any delays would negate the goal why we were set up in the first place . That was made clear and there was no illegality in the process.
2.Kenya Covid fund is NOT the main Covid fund where the likes of Jack Ma donation was made , so please dont mix up issues.
3. Ours is purely private sector and 90% of the members are prominent players in the private sector . Our chair Jane Karuku is MD EABL , MD Equity Bank Dr James Mwangi, MD Absa Bank Jeremy Awori, MD KCB Joshua Oigara, MD Citizen Wachira Waruru , Chairman Safaricom Wachira Waruru, Executive Chairman Devki Group , Narendra Raval, CEO Kenya Association Of Manufactures Phyllis Wakiaga and yours truly Mohammed Hersi at that time Chairmam Kenya Tourism Federation.
4. We agreed we will manage the funds ourselves and surrender what is left to GOK once we wind up. We were planning to wind up and ask His Excellency The President the appointing authority to allow us to leave but then Omicron variant was reported and we decided to hang in and see how that pans out .
5. Let me make it clear we did not receive tax payers money these are funds by private sector and led by our own board. Dr Mwangi and his family made a personal donation of Ksh 320M in cash and when you add Equity bank and Mastercard it comes to a total of Ksh 1.1B. Safaricom made a donation of Ksh250M while Absa and KCB each made 150M donation, Coop Bank and NCBA Ksh100M each.
6. As a board we DID NOT draw any board allowance or sitting allowance not even a cup of tea and mandazi. Folks we ain’t your usual suspects so please spare us your banter.
7. We never bought anything from Kemsa and opted to encourage local manufacturers to embrace PPEs manufacturing and guess what we helped bring down the cost of PPEs from a high of Ksh12000 to current 750 and eleven lower . A box of masks from a high of Ksh7000 to current cost of less than Ksh350.
None other than Dr Mwangi who chaired the health committee drove this agenda. We said we cannot raise funds locally and send it to China. That is what tenderprenuers love doing we support buy Kenya build Kenya and personally I religiously do.
8. Dr Mwangi and his team then brought on board the medical practitioners their associations to test and feel the PPEs and KEBs to approve the quality. We allowed the users to decide what they feel is suitable and acceptable.
9. We supported many institutions with full kit PPEs and for Mombasa I joined Dr Mwangi to make our donation to Mombasa county where none other than my Governor H.E Hon Hassan Joho received our donation. We did the same in more than 30 counties across Kenya.
10. We also supported over 100,000 families who were vulnerable in the Informal sector of Nairobi and cash ttanfers as well . We also Worked extremely well with many others like Team Pankaj, Ramgharia Sikh youth, Rotary clubs, Hindu Council and many others more so in food donation.
I hope the above clarifies our position and very soon we shall wind up and the cash remaining which is still substantial Ksh400M + will be sent to Treasury.
Folks there you are and that is the position so anything else you read or hear is the usual spiced up stuff . It is your choice who you want to believe.
As always yours truly is choosing to remain an optimist.
Mohammed Hersi
Board Member
Kenya Covid Fund
