Irungu Nyakera, the KEMSA Board Chair, emphasized the transformation of the facility into a dynamic hub, now seamlessly connected with the National Supply Chain Centre in Embakasi.
"The depots which remained moribund for nearly a decade have been linked to the National Supply Chain Centre, Embakasi to mirror functionality and enable seamless operations," Nyakera explained.
The chair highlighted the centre's role in decentralizing services to meet the growing demand for accessible healthcare solutions to the Lake Region.
The Kisumu Regional Distribution Centre is designed to efficiently manage the receipt, processing, and distribution of medical supplies within the Lake Region, significantly reducing the Order Turnaround Time by about 40%.
"Decentralization of Kisumu and later Mombasa hubs, has been triggered by the growing demand to bring services closer to mwananchi in order to serve and satisfy our customers’ demands. Previously Kisumu Regional Distribution Centre was only processing program orders,” he added.
Kemsa CEO, Dr. Andrew Mulwa, outlined the operational scope of the new centre, initially
serving 10 counties in the Nyanza, Western, and North Rift Regions, with plans to expand.
“The distance from Nairobi to Kisumu is far. Therefore, any businessman, who is quick
thinking would want to get a route that is much shorter in terms of turnaround time,” Dr. Mulwa noted.
Kemsa has had various strategic transformative efforts aimed at enhancing service delivery.
Since the board of management was appointed in May last year, they have worked cohesively to address major shortcomings that were hindering seamless distribution of medical supplies.
The efforts have focused on improving key areas like procurement finance, governance, risk management, human resources and support systems and warehouses.
The event was graced by a section of governors led by host Deputy Governor Mathews Owili, Ken Lusaka, Vihiga's Wilberforce Otichilo and Kisumu Central MP Joshua Oron, chair of the health committee Robert Pukose, and Seme MP Nyikal James among others.
Others included director general for Health, KEMSA Board chair and board officials and CEOs from various hospitals across the region, county executive members among others.
The facility is spacious enough to facilitate efficient supply and cold chain solutions for regular essential medical supplies and serve as an emergency buffer stock holding and regional distribution centre.
It aligns with the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution's decentralisation efforts.
Since its inception, the Kisumu Regional Distribution Centre has processed essential medicines orders from four counties valued at more than Sh120 million.
Additionally, an order of Sh36 million from Kisumu County has already been uploaded into the Kemsa LMIS system.
Between February 15 and 29, 2024, program items worth over Sh200 million were picked and dispatched from the centre.
