Kuria defends SHA system ownership, dismisses concerns about foreign control

President William Ruto's senior economic advisor, Moses Kuria, has addressed ongoing concerns regarding the ownership and security of data under the Social Health Authority (SHA).

This follows a damning report by the Auditor General, which revealed that the government invested Ksh.104.9 billion into the system without thoroughly reviewing some clauses in the contract.

One such clause states that the government cannot access or control the system, meaning that critical Kenyan data may be in the hands of private entities managing it, raising serious concerns about data privacy.

Speaking on Citizen TV’s JKLive show on Wednesday, Kuria stated that the Digital Health Authority is the sole owner of the health data in question, clarifying that the data is not stored abroad, as some have suggested.

“The Digital Health Authority is the single owner of the data. They have three data centres, the main data centre and redundancy data centres, all of them within the Republic of Kenya. The data is domiciled here,” said Kuria.

He also addressed the audit report on the platform's data security, noting that while an audit report is important, it is not conclusive until addressed and reviewed by Parliament.

“An audit report is just that, an audit report. There are two stages of an audit report…I give you an audit report and then you are given a chance to respond. Then it goes to somebody who is the judge and that is Parliament, for the time being the Auditor General’s report is just a report,” he said.

Kuria made the remarks in response to concerns raised by Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka, who was also on the show, about the security and management of the SHA system.

Onyonka referred to the Auditor General’s report, which raised concerns about who truly owns and runs the system, citing involvement from three mysterious companies managing the system.

“The Auditor General said nobody knows who runs that system, there are three companies including Safaricom, where they have sorted out a consortium; one company that is owned in France. These three companies are the ones that are running management of the money systems, medical systems and the equipment systems,” said Onyonka.

“The question we are asking is how can our government, with the technical expertise and young people who are bright and intelligent, not be able to domicile the system that is running your money, health and everything in the Ministry of Health be domiciled to foreigners?”