Kiambu governor Kimani Wamatangi has warned medics in the area against stealing drugs stocked in government hospital pharmacies.
He said that his administration had launched investigations to establish health centres whose administrators are alleged to conspire with pharmacists to steal drugs and then sell the same to private chemists and hospitals.
Speaking during this year’s Jamhuri day celebrations at ultra-modern Kirigiti stadium, the visibly irate county boss said that it’s sad to learn that his administration is doing everything possible to ensure that all health centres are fully stocked with medicine only for some greedy, insensitive and unscrupulous medics to sell the same.
“If you are one such character, you better pack up and go in earnest before the full force of the law catches up with you. Your days are numbered”, he said.
He said that his administration has invested heavily in preventive and curative healthcare provision noting that all citizens must enjoy their rights to quality, affordable and accessible healthcare services.
Wamatangi said that the recently rolled out Universal Health Care program will see the county undertake a massive registration for NHIF targeting all vulnerable families in the county.
“The county government will pay the required charges for the less privileged members of the society in order to ensure that they too will enjoy good healthcare services,” he noted.
Adding: “We want to ensure that everyone in Kiambu will have access to quality healthcare irrespective of their financial status. It’s worth noting that good health is key to development.”
He said that stocking government hospitals’ pharmacies will henceforth be a continuous process with respective health facilities immediately placing orders for medicines which are out of stock.
The governor revealed that his administration is confronted by the daunting task of financing his vision and development agenda because almost every cent it gets goes to recurrent expenditures.
He said that he has since initiated a raft of far-reaching reforms in revenue collection as well as reasonable austerity measures aimed at increasing the county’s owns source of revenue collection.
“We want to raise our own revenue from the current Kes. 2.5b to a minimum of Kes. 5b and to achieve this, we have embarked on embracing modern revenue management payment and service delivery system, ” he said.
He added that the new strategy is aimed at taming revenue leakages and that it will also cover all the available revenue streams by improving efficiency.
Wamatangi, who is the Kiambu immediate former senator, further said that his administration is exploring new revenue areas in order to widen its collection base and help realize its revenue target without increasing levies and fees.
“I have already formed a task force on revenue collection enhancement and it will soon present its report and make appropriate recommendations before we hit the ground running,” he said.
