Purge at Afya House amid spending storm

Turf wars at Afya House between what insiders claim to be established cartels and the new leadership have resulted in the purge of 31 senior officers following suspicions on Covid-19 spending.

The Saturday Standard has established that those transferred from the Health ministry are officials drawn from the finance and procurement departments.

Health CS Mutahi Kagwe, who has been thrust in the frontline barely two months into office and is leading the nation's response to the coronavirus crisis, is reported to have requested for the transfers.

State officers from other ministries, including Energy, Interior, Education, Sports and Petroleum, have also been moved, but their colleagues at Afya House are the hardest hit.

The senior public servants, who are charged with sourcing for health service providers and approving payments amounting to billions of shillings every year, were ordered to vacate their desks by close of business yesterday.

“By copy of this letter, the Cabinet secretaries of ministries affected are requested to inform the officers to report to the State Department of Devolution for deployment after the successful handing over but not later than 1st May, 2020,” reads the letter from Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani.

Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua also received a copy of the letter.

The April 27 letter confirmed the transfer of 15 supply chain managers, including the principal supply chain manager who was moved to the Department of Youth Affairs.

The rest of the offices have been redeployed to other government ministries and State departments, including the newly created Nairobi Metropolitan Services. They were expected to have reported to their new stations by yesterday.

Ten accountants in the finance department have been affected, including the ministry's senior and principal accountants. The accountant general has been seconded to the pensions department in the National Treasury.

The Treasury has agreed to transfer 10 replacements to fill the vacant positions.

The transfers come hot on the heels of public backlash after Mr Kagwe presented a heavily criticised Covid-19 expenditure report to Parliament.

Kenyans were outraged to learn that Sh1 billion given by the World Bank for emergency response was used to pay for items like stationery, airtime, and tea and snacks.