The Global Fund has rejected an application by Kenya to access about Sh12.4 billion to fight HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, over what they termed as “failure to comply with the eligibility criteria of ensuring an open and transparent principal recipient selection process”.

“The process did not comply with the eligibility criteria of ensuring an open and transparent principal recipient selection process, based on clearly defined and objective criteria,” the Fund says in a recent report.

This was occasioned by the country’s decision to drop Kenya Red Cross Society and appoint Amref Kenya as the sole recipient of the funds.

Previously, the funds were managed by at least two major NGOs, mostly Amref and the Kenya Red Cross.

The Global Fund partnership mobilizes and invests more than US$4 billion a year to support programs run by local experts in more than 100 countries.

The Fund had already allocated Kenya a total of Sh42 billion (US$415,310,170) for the 2020-2022 period, to be utilized beginning July next year.

Seventy per cent of the funds would be transferred to the Treasury while the remaining 30 per cent would be channeled to one or more selected non-governmental organisations (called non-state principal recipients), who would then subgrant smaller NGOs in the country.

A 23-member committee called the Kenya Coordinating Mechanism (KCM), which is chaired by Health PS Susan,is incharged of selecting the NGO’s (non-state principal recipients).

Some KCM members protested the decision by the Ministry Of Health to kick the Kenya Red Cross out of the fund and refused to sign the application that Kenya sent to the GF on August 31.

“The Global Fund recommends that the KCM cancels the non-state PR selection process as submitted to the Global Fund Secretariat on 31 August 2020 given the significant flaws noted in the financial evaluation part of the procurement process,” the Fund said.

Global Fund asked Kenya to present a fresh application by 5 pm on Monday.