NAIROBI, Kenya Oct 2 – The National Assembly Committee on Health has recommended further investigations by the Director of Criminal Investigations on the missing Jack Ma donations.
The committee is probing allegations that COVID-19 donations from the Alibaba founder were stolen or diverted on arrival before it was sold to the country’s premier medical supplier, the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA).
“The Committee, in accordance with its mandate, and as per all the submissions – both written and orally presented before it as well the inspection visit, made the following recommendations that within thirty (30) days of the tabling of this report, MOH submits to the National Assembly a report on the status of the recovery of twenty-one (21) packages under the Jack Ma donations towards COVID-19 response,” part of the committee’s recommendations reads in part.
This comes after the Ministry of Transport, which was to clear a total of 697 quantities, said it received the goods at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) short of 21 packages.
“We were to receive assorted medical supplies of 697 packages. But 21 packages have not been accounted for,” the MPs said in the report.
“The rest of the items arrived safely and were dispatched to either Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) or the Ministry of Health as directed by Agnes Ayaga, the designated officer from the ministry,” Transport chief administrative secretary Chris Obure told the National Assembly Committee in September.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe had separately told the committee that neither the Chinese government nor the Jack Ma Foundation have complained because nothing was stolen.
The Sabina Chege-led Committee has given the Ministry of Health 30 days to furnish the National Assembly with a report on the status of the recovery of the twenty-one packages under the Jack Ma donations towards COVID-19 response.
In its report which was tabled in the House on Thursday, the Health Committee further tasked the Ministry of Health to ensure KEMSA procures and distributes the re-usable face masks designated for the vulnerable in the society noting that the National Assembly appropriated Sh300 million in June 2020 for this purpose and the funds have been available in KEMSA since July 2020.
