High Court declines Omtatah bid to stop SHIF
Many users are reporting incorrect entries in their Social Health Authority accounts.
Roll-out of the Social Health Insurance Fund will proceed as planned after the High Court on Tuesday declined a request to halt it.
Justice Bahati Mwamuye declined to grant orders stopping the Health ministry from implementing the new plan as had been requested by Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah, Mr Eliud Karanja Matindi and Dr Magare Gikenyi.
The trio had argued that the Social Insurance Health Act was being operationalised without the enactment of the enabling subsidiary legislations.
However, Justice Mwamuye certified the petition as urgent and directed the petitioners to serve the court documents upon Health Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa and Attorney-General Dorcas Oduor immediately.
"The notice of motion application be and is hereby certified urgent and it shall be heard on a priority basis," said the judge.
The three petitioners have also questioned the procurement of Safaricom consortium to provide an Integrated Healthcare Information Technology System (IHTS) for Universal Health Care (UHC) at the cost of Sh104.8 billion.
Apeiro Limited, the largest shareholder in the Safaricom consortium, was awarded the technology-based system for the UHC programme.
The legislator argued that the procurement Safaricom consortium is suspicious as it was not transparent, competitive and cost-effective.
According to the petitioners, the request for proposal was allegedly issued on May 9, 2024 and on May 15, Safaricom Consortium allegedly submitted its technical and financial proposals.
“Unbelievably, upon alleged evaluation on the same date, the procuring entity issued a notification of intention to award contract under the letter Ref No. MOH/PROC/GEN/MF/ADSCMS/VOL.1 of 16th May 2024,” Mr Omtatah said.
He claimed that the SHA was being implemented using two legal notices- the Social Health Insurance (General) Regulations, 2024 and The Social Health Insurance (Tribunal Procedure) Rules, 2024- which were annulled by the Senate.
