How Elgeyo Marakwet County lost over KSh7M Covid-19 funds!
“County department of Economic and Public Planning is expected to table its findings and recommendations regarding the Loss of Covid funds”
While the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared COVID-19 over as a global health emergency. COVID-19 is not over as a global health threat.
A Consolidated Audit report of the Auditor general on Covid-19 vaccine roll out in Kenya indicates the country lost millions of shillings due to weaknesses noted in some of the processes such as failure to budget for the role out activities ,lack of practical adherence to waste disposal regulations as well as inadequate staff and training at the facilities .
At the National Level the Country lost almost Ksh 1B through unexplained variance totaling to 1,566,973 vaccine doses .
The Government of Kenya through the Eldoret Regional vaccine Store disbursed a total 134,860 doses of various types of vaccines to Elgeyo Marakwet County between 31st March 2021 to 31st March 2022 .
By 31st March 2022 , 19,785 vaccine doses were either expired ,damaged or wasted while another 11,540 doses were missing , these challenges led to loss of over KSh7M .
Weaknesses were noted on the storage facilities that did not comply with storage conditions set out for Covid-19 vaccines by WHO.
Many of these facilities were in Keiyo North Sub-County and Marakwet West Sub-County.
“The facilities did not have a cleaning log,no written procedure and program for pest control nor any written procedures for the clean-up of any spillage to ensure complete removal of any risk of contamination.”
According to the Auditor general the county also failed to adhere to the waste disposal regulations ,7,721 doses had not been administered as indicated on the vials by the manufacturer leading to loss of Public funds.
Over 6,000 expired vaccine doses had not been disposed from the facilities by the time of the special audit.
Vaccines in Elgeyo Marakwet were distributed from Regional Vaccines stores to the sub County stores as there was no County store and in some cases the vaccines were transported directly to administering facilities.
The County failed to provide a separate budget for the transportation of vaccines hence informing the high numbers of expired and or damaged vaccine doses.
John Keen Murkeu the Director Finance then and Nixon Changwony the then Chief officer Finance contravened regulations 29 of the Public Finance management (County Government) Regulations ,2015 by failing to provide a separate budget for the Covid-19 vaccination costs , including transportation, training and capacity building as well as procurement of auxiliary services such as syringes and safety boxes.
Elgeyo Marakwet relied on the National Budget allocation of KSh.4,846,100 where over KSh2M was spent on vaccinators and Volunteer allowances while in 10 health facilities used for the storage of vaccine doses there was no contingency plan in case of power failure ,equipment breakdown or cold chain breach.
Mary Kipchumba the then C.O health Services Elgeyo Marakwet and Dr. Patrick Kosgei the then Director Medical Services failed to provide documents and evidence over Donor support by partners and how such monies were utilized.
As early as 2020, funds were allocated to purchase 10 ICU beds in the County.
Access to quality primary health care is still a pipe dream, one that COVID-19 pandemic managed to unearth; worse still, the situation remains the same especially in most of the sub county health facilities.
Kenya as a Nation has only 518 Intensive care Unit beds. Out of these 439 had already been occupied by patients across the country. Nairobi County has the highest number of ICU beds at 247.
According to Hon. Shadrack Lulley, a former member of the Elgeyo Marakwet County Assembly, who was also the chairperson of the Health committee, the County assembly allocated Ksh.30M to the Iten county referral hospital in 2020 to assist in the fight against COVID-19.
According to the Ministry of health an ICU bed costs upto Ksh 8 million .
which would mean with 30M,the County would have procured atleast 4 ICU beds.
According to the Ministry of Health before the Covid- 19 cases were reported in Kenya,there was no single ICU bed in Elgeyo Marakwet County.
The Ministry of Health recorded only 228 Covid -19 confirmed cases in Elgeyo Marakwet County ,out of which 3 cases were critical and needed critical attention .
According to the Chief officer clinical services in the Elgeyo Marakwet Health department Jeremiah Chirchirch, atleast by now the county boasts of three fully equipped ICU units with life support, ventilators and cardiac arrest equipment as well as two HDU-High dependency units.
Jackline Kaben a Covid-19 survivor from Elgeyo Marakwet County recounted that when she fell ill July 2020, she was admitted at the Iten County Referral Hospital and later requested to be referred to The Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital where she thought she could get better services given that she had underlying health condition
Kaben suffered from High blood pressure, she shared that her family did not want to risk it. In case her condition got worse and would be in need of an ICU bed.
Jackline opines that there was no ICU bed readily available for her at the Iten County referral Hospital despite the colossal amount of monies directed to the county by the Government and Donor partners.
Dr. Darwin Ambuka , KMPDU Chairperson, North rift region, notes , “There has never been accountability in the whole country with regards to Covid 19 funds and not even in Elgeyo Marakwet County.
“Much of the Covid -19 Funds were misappropriated ,The funds would have boosted the capacity of County health facilities ,however looking back nothing is worth reporting “Notes Dr. Ambuka.
The Ministry of Health Kenya recommends that a county hospital should have at least 10 intensive care unit beds and 10 High Dependency Unit beds ,however this is work in progress In Elgeyo Marakwet County.
The Elgeyo Marakwet County department of Economic and Public Planning is expected to table its findings and recommendations regarding the Loss of Covid-19 funds at the County.
More than three years later, Covid-19 has caused an estimated 764 million cases globally and about 5 billion people have received at least one dose of the vaccine,millions of people are still getting infected ,thousands are dying, many are getting hospitalized and admitted to intensive care ,many are suffering from long -Covid.
Any Covid-19 Variant that is around poses a risk for each and every one of us ,especially the vulnerable.