Kenyans have voiced their anger after millions of National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) members were moved to the newly introduced Social Health Authority (SHA) without their consent.
The controversial move comes as Acting SHA CEO Elijah Wachira openly admitted to the botched rollout, citing that claims processing had stalled due to biometric failures, leaving patients in limbo.
The shock announcement followed an earlier declaration by Harry Kimtai, Principal Secretary in the State Department for Medical Services, who revealed that the government planned to migrate 9 million verified NHIF members to SHA. He explained that, out of the 12 million NHIF members, only 9 million had verifiable documentation, leaving a staggering 3 million members excluded.
Initially, the government had assured NHIF members that they must opt-in and register for the SHA scheme. However, this promise was abruptly overturned, with millions of Kenyans finding themselves automatically enrolled in SHA without their explicit consent. “We made a provision within our regulations to migrate the 9 million registered NHIF members to SHA. The data is there, and when they visit hospitals, their biometrics will confirm their identity,” Kimtai explained on Spice FM.
Health CS Dr Deborah Barasa, with PS Mary Muthoni and Director General Dr Patrick Amoth, inspecting key health facilities, including KNH, to evaluate preparedness for the Mpox outbreak, Monday, August 19.
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MoH
While speaking on the floor of the National Assembly, Health Committee Chairperson Robert Pukose revealed that as of Wednesday, 12,600,800,033 Kenyans had been registered to SHA. He told Parliament, “Out of that, those who are in NHIF are 9,640,640,523 and those who are newly registered are 2,900,323.”
Pukose added, “I can confirm that…you will find that messages are coming to your phone without you even having done anything. You are among those 9.6 million that have been transitioned from NHIF to SHIF through the system without you doing anything, after they cleaned the system.”
This sudden shift sparked widespread outrage across social media, with many Kenyans receiving SMS notifications that their NHIF accounts had been successfully migrated to SHA. The SMS read: “Your NHIF account has been migrated successfully to Social Health Authority. To update your profile, dial *147# or visit sha.go.ke.”
The uproar was immediate. One Kenyan angrily posted on X (formerly Twitter), “This is a violation of several laws.” Another user shared, “When did I authorise this? This is unacceptable.”
The government’s decision to bypass the opt-in process and automatically transfer data has led to accusations of violating individual rights and disregarding transparency. The confusion deepened when, just last month, SHA officials had firmly stated, “You need to opt-in to register with SHA since your data cannot be transferred without your consent.”
As the dust settles on this chaotic transition, questions about the efficiency of the new SHA system continue to mount. CEO Elijah Wachira’s admission that biometric systems have failed has left many wondering about the future of health coverage under the new regime.
With nearly 10 million NHIF users already transferred to SHA, the lingering technical challenges threaten to undermine the credibility of the new scheme.
A sample of an NHIF card (left) and NHIF staff undertaking a biometric registration exercise in 2021.
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NHIF
