President William Ruto has hailed the transition from the defunct National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) to the Social Health Authority (SHA) as transformative.
In his statement during the 11th National and County Governments Co-ordinating Summit at State House on December 16, 2024, Ruto observed that the programme’s critics were diminishing.
“I can already see the progress that has been made. The naysayers are becoming fewer. In the previous weeks, the media were saying ‘this thing is not going to work’; now, they are saying ‘it is working but is creating two categories of Kenyans’,” Ruto said.
Adding: “At least we are beyond the point where ‘we asked ‘is it working or not?’ I have no doubt in my mind that this programme will work because my team and I have spent countless hours figuring out how this is going to be rolled out.”
Ruto noted that he was privileged that the programme was being actualized during his tenure, stating that successive regimes from the Kibaki era had attempted some form of universal health coverage without significant success.
SHA challenges overcome
During the rollout of the ambitious SHA project on October 1, 2024, the authority faced backlash, with the system experiencing glitches that got patients stranded for hours as they waited for pre-authorisation to be treated at facilities.
Ruto said that much of the challenges observed during the rollout were behind them, urging members of the public to continue registering for SHA.
“We are confident that the challenges that became part of this programme initially have now been overcome,” Ruto stated.
Some of the problems faced by patients during the transition from NHIF to SHA were the slow uptake by private health facilities, the unreliability of the population economic means-testing instrument which was found to be slow and inefficient and the uncertainty around the debts owed NHIF.
Opposition to project
On Sunday, December 15, 2024, Ruto’s aide and long-time ally Farouk Kibet urged Kenyans to register for the health insurance scheme, noting that detractors were deterring others from enjoying the benefits of having the insurance.
“Those who have registered for SHA are deterring other Kenyans from being part of the programme,” Farouk observed.
During an interview on December 1, 2024, former Deputy president Rigathi Gachagua revealed that SHA was one of the projects that he failed to support during his time in government.
“I ask President William Ruto to forgive me, ‘I am sorry, my former boss, Adani, I could not help you to defend, SHA, I could not help you to defend,” Gachagua made the sentiments in response to Ruto’s statement during the Deputy President Kithure Kindiki inauguration, where he claimed that he was the lonely voice at the executive.
