‘You and your henchmen are con artists,’ Kigame tells Ruto over SHA mess

Former presidential aspirant Reuben Kigame has criticised President William Ruto over the dysfunctional National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF)-to-Social Health Authority (SHA) transition whose glitches have left patients unable to access healthcare in hospitals countrywide.   

The new public healthcare system has been heavily criticised since the transition began in early October for its meagre benefits and cries from Kenyans unable to get treatment despite paying premiums.

The frustration saw angry Kenyans storm the Ministry of Health (MoH) offices in Nairobi on Wednesday to lament the fund’s lack of operationalisation yet the government repeatedly defends it and calls for patients from Kenyans.

The patients, some carrying babies, complained that efforts to seek medical attention at the Kenyatta National Hospital had been futile.

Kigame on Thursday said the new health insurance system cannot work well because it was introduced under dubious motives.

“It is just not working; SHA will never work because it is a con system. There was no lack of a system; NHIF was working and if it had problems, we needed to fix it. Introducing something new where there has been an existing system is outright conmanship,” the activist told Citizen TV’s Daybreak program.

He told off President Ruto, calling him a “con artist” who does not have citizens’ best interests at heart.

“Every time you see someone dismantling a system instead of making it better, you are dealing with con artists. Ruto and his henchmen are nothing but con artists,” Kigame said.

KHN blamed Wednesday’s “slight lapse in patient care” on “system downtime experienced over the last two days” which it said affected patient clearance and administrative processes.

The country’s largest referral hospital said the issue was resolved.

But some government officials like Mogotio MP Reuben Kiborek have dismissed Kenyans’ criticism of SHA on what he calls pessimism, fueled by local media which he accuses of not covering positive stories about SHA.

“With SHA, the teething problem we have is dealing with chronic diseases because of funding from the exchequer. When we go for the supplementary budget, we will do something about it as the Health Committee,” the MP told Daybreak on Thursday.

“As for the rest, I can assure you it is working. The system is still new and these are teething problems.”

Health Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa has previously maintained that “services are being offered and people are being treated” under SHA, “but the challenge has been with sensitisation.”

The minister was scheduled to address the public later on Thursday amid sustained public outcry on the public health insurance fund.