Makueni — The Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) has received a lobbying boost from Makueni Governor Mutula Kilonzo Junior, who has pledged to advocate for a Sh3 billion re-capitalisation of the state commercial agency.
Speaking when he flagged off a more than Sh101 million health commodities consignment for Makueni County Health facilities, Governor Mutula Junior underscored the need to provide sufficient financial resources to KEMSA; to facilitate positive health outcomes.
At the function in Wote Town, also attended by Makueni Senator Daniel Maanzo, Governor Mutula Junior further decried the continued use of judicial applications to derail reforms at KEMSA, effectively hurting health services provision at the devolved units level.
"I am going to use my skills to legally lobby for KEMSA to get better resources from the national government. The covid theft left a debt of Kshs 3 billion, affecting health services provision in the counties adversely. I am asking the national government to urgently refinance KEMSA," Mutula said. He added, "With a good KEMSA, 50% of our work as leaders will be done as our population enjoys healthy living standards."
On his part, Senator Maanzo similarly pledged to support KEMSA transformation efforts, including the recapitalisation of the Authority and related legislative support necessary to ensure effective service delivery.
While welcoming the Makueni County leaders' support, KEMSA CEO Terry Ramadhani reiterated the Authority's commitment to service delivery through the new KEMSA 2.0 operating strategy. The KEMSA pledge to support the health promotion agenda at the county level, she said, is part of our three-pronged transformation strategy dubbed the KEMSA 2.0 strategy.
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"Within the KEMSA 2.0 strategy, the Authority has formulated plans to enhance the customer experience standards for all counties by focusing on key performance indicators, including optimum order fill rates and a less than seven days turnaround time," She said.
KEMSA, she added, will continue working closely with County Governments for information technology capacity building and integration of technology systems. She said such capacity building and systems integration is part of KEMSA's efforts to ensure visibility, transparency, accountability and integrity of end-to-end stocks.
Known for developing several economic empowering industries, Ms Ramadhani challenged the leadership of Makueni County to consider setting up a pharmaceutical consumables manufacturing industry as part of their county's industrialisation and growth plans. She disclosed that KEMSA is considering the sustainable diversification of its revenue and procurement solutions through contract manufacturing with local enterprises.
Following the flag-off, more than 200 health facilities in Makueni County will receive health commodities this week, including Oncology, Renal, Antibiotics, Anti-hypertensive and nutritional supplements. This is also the single largest health commodities consignment delivered by KEMSA to a county this year.
