Nyamira governor Amos Nyaribo has defended his decision to sack CEC Health Timothy Ombati for lying to him about delivery of drugs to health facilities in the county.
In his response to Ombati’s case, Nyaribo says that Ombati misinformed him on the said drugs consignment.
In the case, Ombati has sued Nyaribo seeking for the court to reinstate him back to work arguing that his dismissal was illegal.
However, in his affidavit to court, Nyaribo has asked the court not to grant Ombati any conservatory orders saying he has not met the threshold for orders.
The Governor says the department of health Services procured drugs and non-pharmaceuticals worth Sh 22,489,617 from MEDS which was to be distributed to 126 health facilities across the county.
On July 6 the Ombati asked him to commission and launch the distribution of the drugs and non-pharmaceuticals to the various destinations and and the governor told him that the full consignment should be delivered before the launch.
“Ombati told me that MEDS had scheduled delivery of the entire consignment and were ready for the launch and he did not at any time mention to me that consignment delivered were not complete,” Nyaribo claims.
He claims that Ombati misrepresented facts and made him believe that he was launching the entire consignment of Sh 22.4 million and he did not even thereafter let the governor know that there were batches which were yet to be delivered.
Nyaribo says that it was not until the incident at Ikonge Girls Secondary where students were admitted at Ekerenyo Hospital that he was told that there were no drugs to be administered to the patients.
“From that incident I learnt that not all drugs and non-pharmaceuticals had been delivered at the time of the launch and that there are more batches which were yet to be delivered,” the affidavit reads.
He claims that an audit report into the case highlighted several issues including lack of transparency and accountability in the said process.
Nyaribo says he wrote a show cause letter to Ombati to explain why he had lied to him and he allegedly acknowledged that he misinformed the governor due to lack of accurate information from the supplier.
“The petitioner was not honest and had an ulterior motive going by the manner in which he relayed information to me,” Nyaribo claims.
In his case to court, Ombati through lawyer Danstan Omari has said his dismissal was unlawful faulting the county boss for firing him for something he did not do.
