No need to put a tool kit in the left hand, as repairing never deplete the tool kit entirely and you can combine tool kits to refill them in between missions. And if I recall correctly, a mercenary will only repair the items present in his left hand and his pocket vest. He'll first repair the item in his left hand, and then proceed to repair the items in the pocket vest, starting from the top pocket to the bottom pocket, meaning if there are equipment you want repaired as soon as possible, put them in the left hand or top pocket. You can stack items you want repaired too, for instance if you want to repair five grenades, you can stack them in the same pocket and once a grenade has been repaired, the merc will repair the second grenade in the pocket, and then the third, etc, until they have all been repaired, before moving to the next pocket.