Kenya faced with imminent drug shortage

KEMSA

JANUARY 18, 2010

BY EUGENE OMILO

Kenya is faced with an imminent drug shortage if the government fails to provide enough funds to the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (Kemsa).

Kemsa board chairman Solomon Karanja said the agency requires Sh 10 billion to buy enough drugs for the over 4,000 hospitals and dispensaries countywide.

Karanja was speaking in Mombasa after he led a delegation of the board’s members to pay a courtesy call to mayor Ahmed Mohdhar .

The newly appointed Kemsa board is in Mombasa for a week long retreat  to discuss recommendations made by a taskforce on reforming the sector.  

He said some of the 116 recommendations put before the new board include underfunding which has made it difficult for the board to procure enough drugs, flow of funds from the treasury to the agency and complicated procurement procedures.

 Karanja exonerated the agency from claims that it is involved in distibuting fake drugs saying Kenya’s open market policy is to blame for the infiltration of counterfeit  products including.

 “Kemsa is not involved in dealing with fake drugs, the problem is that Kenya has an open market which unscrupulous dealers take advantage of to fleece money from citizens,” said Karanja. 

Kemsa donated drugs worth more than Sh5oo’ ooo to the Mombasa Municipal Council and advised the Mayor to distribute them free to children homes.

 Mombasa mayor Ahmed Mohdhar said he was pleased to have the board call on him and promised to work together with the agency to achieve better healthcare for Mombasa residents. 

The new board was put in place two weeks ago to take over from the previous one disbanded by Medical Services minister Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o two years ago.

ENDS…