Ministry admits buying sex toys for HIV demo, says correct figures ready

The Ministry of Planning and Devolution now says a report that went viral last week showing inflated costs of items was a draft used to guide its procurement department.

The Ministry’s Principal Secretary Peter Mangiti said the report was only a raw draft that the procurement department had developed to guide its purchasing principal.

Mr. Mangiti said the list, as presented, was incomplete and some items were listed without full descriptions.

For the Integrated Monitoring System, which was listed to have cost Ksh 1.7 million, Mangiti said many people had confused it with a television set but this was not the case. He said it was a special monitoring system that was procured by the Ministry for purposes of meetings.

He also said that the Ministry did not procure 20 pens at Ksh 174,000 as per the report but rather purchased 50 dozens.

The Yamaha piano, which had elicited debate as to why a Ministry would need one for office use, was apparently procured for the National Youth service Band at a cost of Ksh 235,000.

Another item that stirred reactions was the Kaspersky computer antivirus which was procured at Ksh 973,780. The Ministry now says this was not a single-user package but one with 350 licences. The price for each kit, the Ministry says, was Ksh 2,500 which included the installation charges.

The Ministry has also clarified that it bought a heavy duty printer through a competitive process thus the high pricing.

Mangiti says that the purchase of HIV kits was a requirement for every Ministry and therefore his Ministry procured five female and five male condom dispensers at costs of Ksh 12,000 and Ksh 10,000 respectively. The report had indicated that the ministry had procured 18 male and female condom dispensers at a cost of Ksh 450,000, which translated to Ksh 25,000 per dispenser.

He, however, admitted to the Ministry procuring vibrators – which he says were purely for HIV/AIDS demonstrations.

The Ministry says it has prepared the amended list and awaits presentation to the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) admitting that the first list contained many errors.

On asked whether he was coerced to change his stand on the initial list, the PS said that he was not and that he realized the list served to Parliament was wrong.

However, he says that he has initiated a probe to establish whether the prices of the items were inflated and if there were any cases of financial impropriety during the procurement process.

The report had elicited mixed reactions from the members of the public with most of them calling for sacking of Devolution CS Anne Waiguru saying that millions of shillings have been lost under her watch.