County Boss Demands SHA Be Devolved

A section of leaders from Machakos County have called on the national government to devolve the functions of the Social Health Authority (SHA) to the county governments.

Led by Machakos Deputy Governor Francis Mwangangi, the leaders have blamed the financial challenges and lack of sufficient workforce experienced at county hospitals on the failure to fully devolve the functions.

“The national government is implementing a social healthcare system that we have tried to look at and compare and found that Kenya’s is costing Ksh154 billion,” Mwangangi said.

“When we did research, that is a program that can be resourced within a budget of Ksh400 million, who is pocketing almost Ksh103 billion. Which business does the national government have to do what is supposed to be done by counties? Health is devolved,” the DG asked.

Although assuring that the national government was transferring pending devolved functions to counties in line with the directive he issued during the 2023 National and County Governments Coordination Summit, President Ruto has yet to devolve SHA functions to counties.

County governments across have over the years raised concerns over the national government holding onto crucial functions like health, agriculture, and rural road development whose huge budgets go to national-level agencies instead of counties as is envisioned by the current Constitution.

County governments have been faced with challenges in the health sector even as the rollout of SHA continues to solidify.

The Kenyan government has offered health insurance to its citizens through the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) for 58 years until October 1, when the Kenya Kwanza government changed it to SHA.

SHA Members who draw their income from salaried employment make contributions every month as a statutory deduction from wages or salary by the employer. According to the regulations, Kenyans contribute 2.75 per cent, but with a floor of Ksh300.

With the hope of making health better for Kenyans, the Machakos DG has revealed that counties are still grappling with SHA because its functions are yet to be devolved to counties.

According to President Ruto, over 16 million Kenyans have registered for SHA, and the government is looking to ensure that this number increases.

The Ministry of Health has continued to encourage Kenyans to register with SHA in an ongoing exercise that’s being spearheaded by Community Health Promoters at the county and ward level.