Willis Otieno defends Linda Mama gains amid SHA transition
Constitutional Lawyer and Safina Party Deputy Party leader Willis Otieno has called for preservation of the Linda mama programme amid growing debate over the future of the service under the Social Health Authority (SHA).
His remarks come amid public concern that the SHA reforms may erode access to free maternal care by introducing bureaucratic hurdles or hidden costs.
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Taking to his X on Sunday, September 28, 2025, Otieno emphasised the simplicity and dignity the programme once offered to expectant mothers.
“Linda Mama was free at point of service; show your ID, prove you’re Kenyan, and you got maternal care covered,” he wrote.
Also watch: Willis Otieno demands answers over missing Ksh. 40M SHA funds
He argued that many Kenyans fear that the transition to SHA may compromise the accessibility and effectiveness of critical public health programs.
“That’s how public health policy is supposed to work: no barriers, no hidden bills, no humiliation at the hospital gate,” the X post read.
The lawyer’s sentiments add to former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s veiled criticism of the SHA.
Speaking during the Jubilee Party’s National Delegates Conference (NDC) at Ngong Racecourse along Ngong Road in Nairobi, Uhuru took pride in his administration’s achievements, including the Linda Mama programme, which enabled expectant women to deliver in public hospitals free of charge.
In his address, the former Head of State, without directly mentioning SHA, said Kenyans are being subjected to experimental schemes that are untested and untried.
“Today, Linda Mama has been abandoned and replaced by new, untried and untested schemes. While we wait for these experiments to succeed, Kenyans continue to suffer and our progress is slowed,” he said.
He warned that dwelling on rhetoric instead of delivering real progress often leads to repeating past mistakes.
“As we dwell on rhetoric rather than real progress, we repeat the mistakes of the past. The past can guide us, but it is the present that can shape the future,” he told the delegates.
He urged Jubilee Party members to reflect on their direction and the lessons learned.
“We need to ask ourselves: where are we, and where do we want to go? Some things have become apparent to me.
“You succeed by building on past successes, injecting new ideas, and improving upon them; and you fail by ignoring past mistakes, thereby falling into the trap of repeating them,” Uhuru stated.
