A Catholic cleric and an MP have claimed the national health insurer NHIF is dysfunctional.

Many hospitals managed by the Catholic church were unable to function due to huge debts brought about by the insurer’s failure to pay for services rendered to beneficiaries, said Machakos Catholic Bishop Norman King’oo.

The hospitals, he said, were unable to pay their staff as a result.

“Where am I going to get money to pay our staff? Where am I going to get money to pay suppliers?” asked Bishop King’oo yesterday at the opening of a new community dispensary in Nguluni, Matungulu constituency.

The bishop challenged elected leaders to stand up for the rights of citizens.

“You political leaders, Kenyans look up to you because they elected you as their representatives. The things we are seeing every day in the press are shocking,” he said.

“Even the religious leaders cannot comprehend what is happening. There is poor governance and Kenyans are suffering.”.

Matungulu MP Stephen Mule, for his part, said Kenyans were faithfully paying for NHIF but the the government had interfered with the system and now there were chaos and lack of transparency in the scheme.

He demanded full accountability on the amount of money Kenyans have paid since the government stopped paying healthcare providers.

“I want to challenge the government, we want full accountability since you stopped paying the money. Where is the money? How much is it? Because that is taxpayers’ money,” Mule said.