THE KAG ’WAY’

Through the infamous path trudged by the honorable CS Mutahi Kagwe

Our great cabinet secretary for health, Mutahi Kagwe’s journey is filled with scandals, corruptions, controversies and deceit.

Although the obstacles and challenges before him are numerous, if there is money involved, there is Kagwe to fill in his pockets. Because that’s the kag ‘way’. And if there is a will, there is a Kag ’way’.

The first covid-19 case was reported in Kenya on March 12^th of 2020. But little did we know that we’ve already been infected with an even more deadlier virus in February.

On February 28 2020, Kagwe was appointed cabinet secretary for health and we were doomed.

When covid-19 struck Kenya, Kagwe went straight into action. Well, not the kind of action that one would expect. Where everybody saw catastrophe, Kagwe saw an opportunity, an opportunity for corruption.

Kenya was donated 1.3bn shillings by the world bank for dealing with the corona virus pandemic. Enter Kagwe, and money went Houdini.

The breakdown of the money spent was reported by Kagwe as follows,

42m Ksh to lease ambulances

4m on snacks and Tea

2m for mobile phone airtime

And 70m on Communication

It was reported that 15 ambulances were leased, At least we Kenyans were not dumb enough as Kagwe and asked “Why lease 15 ambulances at that amount instead of just purchasing new ambulances or using the existing fleet”?

But the real question is, was Kagwe dumb or was he acting dumb to use light fingers and slip the money into his own pockets?

And what was the motive behind allocating 2m shillings for mobile phone airtime when telecommunications company Safaricom had offered officials involved in the fight against the virus a free package?

And if that wasn’t enough, why was there a need to allocate 70m Ksh for communication when media houses had already contributed to airtime for coronavirus-related news updates?

Alas, only Kagwe knows the answers to these ‘WHYs’, Because that’s the Kag ‘way’.

Subsequently, all of this went on to be branded under the hashtag moneyheist.

While the world watched the popular Netflix show Money Heist season 4 which aired on April 2020, in which the despicable character ‘Gandía’ killed one of the main protagonists ‘Nairobi’. Ironically, Kenyans saw Kagwe killing off not just Nairobi but the whole of Kenya health sector, bit by bit.

This was, of course, a foreshadow of the events that was about to occur.

A more of a same thing happened during the KEMSA scandal.

KEMSA was litigated over the allegations on government officials and businessmen of mugging the $400m of public money meant for medical equipment to be used the fight against coronavirus.

The medical staff dealing with coronavirus patients in the frontline, complained about the quality of supplies, with some posting images online of defective personal protective equipment sent to emergency rooms across the country. 

It was also found that PPE supplies donated by Chinese billionaire and Alibaba founder Jack went missing and had not reached Kenya, instead it was diverted in Ethiopia and had reached Addis Ababa.

When everything was said and done, the blame was on Jonah Manjari, the CEO of KEMSA.

But later, Manjari came an unfolded the events behind the screen. he claimed that he was under pressure by Kagwe to agree on contracts in which the prices charged by the suppliers were higher than what was in the markets.

Kagwe however, showed his true colors, shook off the dirt on his shirt and turned the coat on KEMSA and Manjari by saying “I have never been to KEMSA”. Because that’s the Kag‘way’ of eluding scandals.

When vaccines became the need of the hour in Kenya as much as in the rest of the world, private sales of vaccines were banned, Kagwe claimed that this would create confusion and could prove to be dangerous.

But when the shortage of vaccines affected Kenya, Kagwe was looking up to the skies. He clearly banned a vaccine which was had a more efficacy rate over the current vaccine shots administered in Kenya. and, if that wasn’t bad enough. The supply of the AstraZeneca vaccines has slowed down.

Irungu Kang’ata, the senator for Maranga County, and the former Senate Majority Chief Whip, pointed out that we wouldn’t be having this vaccine crisis if Ministry of Health, under the leadership of Kagwe, hadn’t banned private sales of vaccines. He added that these vaccines were clinically proven safe for use and had better efficacy rates, stating that it was illogical to ban the private sales.

But doing the illogical things is part of the kag’way’ of doing things.

And now, quite recently, Kagwe has come out with his new plans to set up vaccine manufacturing plants in Kenya.

Which is, of-course good plan, but the man who’s going to carry out that plan cannot be trusted.

For all we know, all our taxes and funds will be going towards setting up vaccine production plants, or so it would seem, when actually, the money is going towards Kagwe’s pockets and a year later he would come and announce like a little child that his science experiment had failed and the money was lost.

Because that’s the Kag’way’ of making things happen.

It’s high time we smoke Kagwe out of the health ministry because he has infected the health sector in Kenya for his personal motives.

And how could we trust a man like Kagwe when he is robbing the country for the ones that are claiming to be ruling it, but are actually ruining it?