Five suspects were on Wednesday, February 22 arraigned in court for stealing urine box specimens in Killimani area within Nairobi County.
The court heard that the five colluded with others who were not present in court to steal the specimen containers on Tuesday, February 21.
According to court documents, they stole 20 boxes of urine specimens worth Ksh184,000 from the Ministry of Health (MoH).
All the five suspcts denied the charges levelled against them and were set free on Ksh100,000 cash bail each.
Three of them were also charged with handling stolen goods and dishonesty.
The police arrested the three who are said to have maneovered using a vehicle, which they used to store the solen containers.
The urine specimen boxes were launched by the Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja.
They appeared at the Millimani Law Courts before Chief Magistrate Lukas Onyinya with four witnesses lined up to testify against them.
The case will be mentioned on March 7th.
For many years, the Ministry of Health has grappled with loss of medical supplies and misappropriation of public funds.
In the wake of the pandemic, Afya House was in the eye of a storm after it emerged that taxpayers lost billions of shillings in shady procurement deals.
The Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) was at the centre of the scam, forcing different agencies, including Parliament to launch investigations into the matter.
Since taking over power, President William Ruto has instituted a number of changes aimed at guaranteeing the public quality healthcare delivery.
In particular, the Kenya Kwanza government moved to slash procurement powers of KEMSA in a bid to safeguard public resources.
On February 10, Ruto appointed Daniel Rono as KEMSA boad chairperson, revoking the appointment of Mary Chao Mwadime.
Source: kENYANS.CO.KE
