The Sh5.3 billion scandal at Afya House has taken a new twist after it emerged that registration details of companies involved in the transactions have gone missing from the State Law Office.
Staff at the Companies Registry were yesterday unable to trace the files for Estama Investments, registered as an EPZ company, and Life Care Medics.
The two companies were beneficiaries of cash meant for patients, expectant mothers and new-born babies.
Records of a third supplier, Medafrica, were non-existent, raising questions about its identity.
Without the files, it becomes impossible to unmask the people behind what may turn out to be the biggest scandal in the Jubilee administration.
“Thousands of patients and doctors have suffered from this theft as unearthed by the auditor. This is totally unacceptable and we must know who the thieves are,” said Ouma Oluga, the secretary general of the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union.
It was not immediately possible to get an input from the Attorney General, who is the head of the State Law Office, relating to the missing files.
An official who attended to the request by The Standard was only able to get the registration numbers of the companies but said additional information such as directorship were only contained in the physical file.
In another failed attempt to get details of sampled companies, an officer from the Registry said the missing files may have been displaced before offering to locate them herself.
Reforms undertaken at the Companies Registry, a department at the office of the AG, which include digitisation of records were anticipated to tackle the “lost files” menace and enhance transparency.
Missing company files have in the past frustrated investigations into major corruption scandals even slowing the progress of court proceedings.
Estama Investments Ltd was the biggest beneficiary of the payments after receiving Sh1 billion. The Standard was only able to establish that it was registered in June 19, 2008.
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