Ministry only received a small fraction of Covid-19 funds – Nairobi News

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the Ministry of Health only received a fraction of the billions of shillings set aside by the government to combat the Covid-19 pandemic in the country.

Kagwe spoke while appearing before the National Assembly’s Health Committee on Monday flanked by the ministry’s Principal Secretary Susan Mochache.

“Covid-19 funds are not entirely health ministry funds. Money assigned to the Ministry of Health is about 15-percent of the Covid-19 funds. It has been made to look like 15-percent is a hundred percent,” explained Kagwe to the MPs.

The Kenyan government has so far received more than Sh100 billion from various international development partners, including the World Bank and the European Union.

Mochache named Kenyatta National hospital,Mbagathi hospital, Coast General hospital, Kitui hospital and Mandera hospital as among the health institutions that have benefitted from the state’s Covid-19 funds.

The health CS  also explained that investigations are ongoing into the use of Covid-19 mitigation funds, including the testing kits donated to the government by the Jack Ma Foundation.

These sentiments come a day after NTV aired an expose dubbed #Covid19millionaires that alluded to massive corruption in the way the Covid-19 resources have been utilised.