Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua found himself in hot soup after the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) claimed a company associated with him had irregularly been awarded the Sh3.7 billion mosquito nets tender before it was cancelled by Global Fund.

The revelation came hours after former Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Andrew Mulwa implicated the DP in the scandal.

EACC Deputy CEO Abdi Mohamud told senators during the impeachment motion against Gachagua that Shobika Impex Limited company, whose local agent was Crystal Kenya, was favoured to win the tender.

Mohamud disclosed that investigations conducted by EACC had established that the sacked State Department for Public Health and Professional Standards Principal Secretary Josephine Mburu tried to change the tender specifications for the supply of mosquito nets as provided by the Global Fund to enable it meet the specifications provided by Shobika Impex.

Global Fund cancelled the tender following irregularities in the procurement process that the agency argued were skewed.

The long-lasting polyethylene and polyester nets were to be distributed from November 2023 to July 2024 as part of the mass malaria campaign but distribution only commenced this year.

“From investigations, we realised the PS did write to CEO Kemsa to change the specification so that it can fit the specification provided by Shobika Limited whose local agent was Crystal,” he said, adding that there were serious challenges with that particular tender.

Mohamud further told the senators that the said company submitted the bid bond by hand way after the closure of the submission date and thus Kemsa was forced to extend the deadline to allow Shobika to submit their documents.

Extended deadline
He explained that when the tender was cancelled, Mulwa wrote to the commission requesting for the bid bonds for Shobika to be handed back to him, which they did but recommended that disciplinary actions be taken on all Kemsa officials. The tender for the procurement was launched on January 31 2023 and had a deadline of February 23. However, Kemsa extended it to March.

“The tender was to close on (February) 23, the company (Shobika) wanted to have a bid bond introduced in the tender yet it is supposed to be part of the document and therefore the bid bond was delivered to the CEO by hand when the date of closure was done and therefore they had to extend the date to March so that Shobika could benefit from that extension,” he revealed.

According to the CEO, they realised that when the tender was discontinued other companies were disqualified on the fact that they did not have the manufacturer who would manufacture the nets- yet in real sense they are actually manufacturers.

Intimidating call
Mulwa who had spoken before claimed that the bid bonds were submitted outside the timelines which is an irregularity.

In his submissions, Mulwa claimed that from the beginning, Gachagua influenced the award of tender through calls which were intimidating to him.

“This was the first time I received a call from a sitting Deputy President requesting for documents that were under investigation. In my 15 years of public service I had never been asked to do that and, therefore, I felt coerced and left the business that I had for the day, go to EACC, follow up the bid bond so that I am able to retrieve it. I sat for five hours in EACC waiting for them to give me the bind bond,” he said.

The submissions came after senators sought to know how the tender was awarded and how Gachagua influenced its award to a company related to Shobika.

Nominated senator Hamid Kibwana sought to know whether the country incurred financial loss.
“Apart from the financial loss that Kemsa incurred, did the alleged interference affect the relationship between the Global Fund and Kemsa?,” she inquired.

Kakamega senator Bonny Khalwale sought to know how the conversations between the two went.
“Your (Dr Mulwa) evidence is so critical that we would like you to walk us through that conversation between the Deputy President and yourself”.