President Ruto Responds After AG Reveals SHA System is Not Owned by Gov't

President William Ruto has responded following a recent report by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu that revealed the Social Health Authority (SHA) system is not controlled or owned by the government. 

Speaking on Tuesday, March 4, Ruto confirmed Gathungu's reports saying the system is run by a consortium of technology companies, ensuring the integrity of SHA and preventing fraudulent claims. 

He said that the new system is designed to protect citizens' contributions and will not be financed by the government but will instead operate on a fee-for-service model.

"We are going to have a consortium of technology companies that is going to make sure that there are no fraudulent claims in SHA. They are going to make sure that that system will not be paid for by the government; it will be a fee-for-service facility that will make sure that we protect citizens' contributions," he said.  

Ruto dismissed those criticizing the system, suggesting that their opposition stems from a desire to maintain avenues for corruption within the health sector.

"The people who are complaining are the fellows who have been stealing from us; they don't want a technology system that works because they want to continue stealing from us," he added.

A report by Gathungu showed that the system, its components and all intellectual property rights are owned by a consortium.

“The ownership of the system, system components and all intellectual property rights shall remain in the ownership of the consortium except for the infrastructure which is to be transferred to the procurement,” the report read in part.

Gathungu noted that the system's financing model projects Ksh111 billion in revenue over ten years, generated through SHA member contributions, health facility claims, and charges from the track and trace solution.

“According to the financial proposal, the consortium proposed the adoption of a funding model which entails charging fees from member contributions to Social Health Authority (SHA), claims from health facilities and charges for the track and trace solution at a rate of 2.5%, 5% and 1.5% respectively for ten (10) years resulting to projected revenues of Kshs. 111,019,068,754,” the report stated.

Earlier Tuesday, economist David Ndii addressed public concerns over the cost and ownership of the system, stating that the Ksh104 billion associated with the platform is not government expenditure but user fees spread over a ten-year contract period.

"The UHC digital platform is fully outsourced. GoK has not spent one Ksh on it. Ksh104 billion is user fees payable over a 10-year contract period,” he wrote on X.