Aids drugs tender given green light

• Kemsa wins court order to go ahead with sourcing of Sh900m medicines

The Kenya Medical Supply Agency can go ahead with a tender for the supply of Aids drugs after a court overturned a directive stopping the process.

High Court judge Lady Justice Abida Ali-Aroni on Thursday issued a temporary order against a decision forcing Kemsa to accept a private firm’s tender documents for the supply of antiretroviral drugs worth Sh900 million.

The ruling means that Kemsa can now go ahead with the process as it is no longer restricted by the Public Procurements Review Board’s decision, which required it to tender afresh.

Thursday’s order came after Kemsa filed a case against the board’s decision compelling it to accept tender documents from a company, Hetero Drugs Limited, which it said did not comply with procurement rules.

Kemsa said the firm presented a scanned copy of its price schedule instead of an original document as stipulated by procurement regulations, leading to the rejection.

Aggrieved, Hetero appealed to the Procurement Review Board which nullified the award and ordered Kemsa to accept the documents and evaluate all bids afresh.

In her ruling, the judge said Kemsa raised pertinent issues regarding the board’s conduct on public procurement.
Arguable case

She said Kemsa has an arguable case which had a reasonable chance of success. “I find the case warrants a stay order.

Unless there is one, Kemsa will have to comply with the orders of the procurement board,” Lady Justice Ali-Aroni said.

She further ordered Kemsa to file its substantive application and directed that the case be mentioned before the Constitutional Court on September 17.