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Address legal challenge to State healthcare plan

Editorial logo Nation.Africa

By  Editorial

A key priority that has proved elusive in the nearly two years of the Kenya Kwanza administration has been rolling out a public healthcare system. The people will have to wait much longer for this programme that was expected to ease access to quality healthcare.

In the past several months, President William Ruto’s government has put a lot of effort into charting a new course away from the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF). This fund has over the years been dogged by mismanagement and corruption. It is these shortcomings that inspired the transition to the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF), but which has been beset by a number of challenges. The latest is a court ruling that has put the health plan in limbo.

The High Court has directed Parliament to re-enact three key laws. On July 12, the court suspended the Social Health Insurance Act, 2023, the Primary Health Act, 2023, and the Digital Act, 2023. It then directed Parliament to undertake adequate and inclusive public participation before enacting the three laws afresh within 120 days.

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It simply means that the people who were to benefit from this public health scheme, and who are the majority poor Kenyans, will be left without medical cover as the NHIF has already been phased out.

It is even more worrying to note that Parliament’s own legal team has explained that the deadline given will not be possible for both the Senate and the National Assembly, as they will require at least a year to comply with the court directive.

The Social Health Insurance Act repealed the National Health Insurance Fund Act and there will be a vacuum should the Act be invalidated. And only last week, Medical Services Principal Secretary Harry Kimtai urged Parliament to allocate the Health ministry a supplementary budget of Sh100 million to enable it to carry out public sensitisation on the Social Health Insurance Act. The country is, therefore, staring at a major healthcare crisis.

Perhaps, in the meantime, President Ruto should consider a repeal of the SHIF and restoring the NHIF, which was inefficient but functional.

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