A Sh650 million government purchase of mobile phones for community health promoters has come under audit scrutiny after it emerged the procurement was carried out without first being captured in the Ministry of Health's approved procurement plan.
The finding has raised fresh questions over compliance with procurement rules and whether public funds were spent as required by law.
The issue is contained in the Auditor-General's report for the financial year ending June 30, 2025, which found that the State Department for Health acquired the devices despite the procurement not appearing in its annual procurement plan.
The Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act requires all government entities to include planned purchases in an approved annual procurement plan before starting the procurement process. The requirement is meant to ensure public spending is properly planned, budgeted for and subjected to oversight.
“During the year under review, the State Department procured community health promoters' phones at a cost of Sh650,000,000, which were not included in the annual procurement plan,” said Nancy Gathungu.
“In the circumstances, value for money on expenditure incurred could not be confirmed.”
Annual procurement plans guide government institutions on the goods, services and works they intend to acquire during a financial year. They also outline estimated costs and funding sources to ensure purchases are properly approved before contracts are issued.
The phones were bought under the government's programme to strengthen digital community healthcare by providing 100,000 community health promoters with smartphones connected to the Electronic Community Health Information System (eCHIS).
Community health promoters are trained members of the public who work closely with health facilities by visiting households, offering health education, monitoring diseases and referring patients for treatment. Most of them travel on foot or by motorcycle to reach homes, especially in remote and underserved areas.
Using the smartphones, the promoters are able to register households, collect patient information, submit reports electronically, monitor disease outbreaks and conduct follow-up visits within their communities.
When the programme was introduced in October 2023, the Ministry of Health said the devices were locally assembled Neon Ultra and Neon Smarta smartphones developed together with Safaricom and tailored to support community healthcare services.
The programme has, however, continued to attract attention. In May this year, Members of Parliament questioned the quality of the smartphones after the Ministry of Health disclosed that it had accumulated Sh876.9 million in pending bills related to the devices.
Kenya has deployed more than 107,800 community health promoters across all counties, with each serving about 100 households. The Sh396 million annual allocation works out to about Sh3,672 for every promoter each year.
Since the programme was rolled out in October 2023, community health promoters have reached 2.7 million households within four months, provided services to about 13.5 million people and screened more than 1.1 million people for high blood pressure.
Besides the mobile phone procurement, the Auditor-General also questioned the award of the wider Sh24.76 billion three-year contract for community health promoter kits.
According to the audit, the contract was awarded to a foreign company that had not been registered in Kenya, contrary to the requirements of the Companies Act 2015.