President William Ruto has dismissed claims by former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua that the government rushed the rollout of the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF), also referred to as the Social Health Authority (SHA). Speaking in Taita Taveta County on Monday, December 2, Ruto clarified that the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) program, which includes SHIF, is not a new initiative and has been part of Kenya’s health policies for nearly two decades.
Ruto responded directly to concerns raised by Gachagua, who had suggested that the SHIF rollout was hurried and involved corruption. “I heard some people saying I have rushed Universal Health Coverage,” Ruto remarked. He emphasized that the UHC program, which aims to provide all Kenyans with affordable healthcare, is not a recent development. “This UHC existed during Kibaki’s government and my friend Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration,” Ruto stated, reaffirming the continuity of the program across multiple administrations.
The President pointed out that previous efforts, such as the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), had not been successful in ensuring sufficient healthcare coverage for many Kenyans. “Now, something that has been in government for nearly twenty years—has it been delayed or not? It has been delayed, hasn’t it?” Ruto questioned, urging the need to move forward and ensure that all citizens have access to healthcare services.
In contrast, Gachagua, in a TV interview on Sunday, had criticized the government’s spending on the new SHIF system, questioning the necessity of a fresh rollout instead of upgrading the existing NHIF. He noted, “Looking at the mathematics surrounding that program, I found that it would have cost us between KES 700 million and KES 800 million to upgrade the system that was running NHIF and make it compliant.” He further alleged that the KES 104 billion allocated to SHIF was the real focus of the government’s rush, suggesting a potential financial motive behind the rollout.
