Duale rejects Ksh50B SHA misuse claims
By Kenneth Mwenda, March 10, 2026Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale has strongly rejected the report suggesting that Ksh50 billion went missing from the Social Health Authority (SHA).
On March 10, 2026, Duale posted a detailed letter on his X account calling the story a serious misrepresentation of facts.
The piece, citing the Auditor-General, highlighted irregular payments under the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF), which SHA manages. It flagged unsupported claims, unauthorised services, payments to uncontracted facilities, and other anomalies amounting to around Ksh50 billion.
Duale hit back, insisting that no money has been lost or stolen. He explained that the figures arose from standard accounting practices during the transition from the old National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) to SHA under the Social Health Insurance Act, 2023.
On claims of irregular or untraced transfers from SHIF to SHA amounting to Ksh1.3 billion and Ksh3.3 billion.
“How can a fund (SHIF) transfer money to itself or its own managing body (SHA) in a way that constitutes an irregular loss?” Duale asked.
He explained that SHA oversees three funds – Primary Healthcare (PHC), Emergency, Chronic and Critical Illness (ECCIF), and SHIF. The transfers were legal movements of cash and assets from old NHIF accounts to new SHA accounts.
“Moving government money from an old account to a new account during a legal institutional transition is not ‘untraced’—it is compliance,” he wrote.
Claims reserve not lost
The largest portion, Ksh26.8 billion labelled “unsupported claims,” is not cash paid out without proof, Duale said. He added that the money sits untouched as reserves.
Using an example, he explained:
“Imagine you host a large wedding. By Sunday morning, the caterers and decorators haven’t sent you their final invoices yet, but you set aside Ksh500,000 to ensure you can pay them.”
In insurance terms, this is called an Outstanding Claims Reserve (OCR), much of which is Incurred But Not Reported (IBNR) claims.
“Failing to reserve this money would be illegal. It is an accounting estimate of future liabilities, not a cash loss,” Duale said.
Duale also addressed Ksh7.3 billion flagged as “unauthorised services,” which arose from mixing funds between SHIF and the Public Officers Medical Scheme Fund (POMSF). He said these payments were legal under POMSF rules.
Ksh 1.56 billion to “uncontracted facilities” occurred during the October 2024 transition. Hospitals with old NHIF contracts continued treating patients while new digital contracts were finalised. Only Ksh92.4 million showed real issues, which SHA stopped immediately.
Finally, Ksh2.4 million labelled as “overpayments” were system auto-corrections to match legal tariffs.
“This is a system working exactly as designed to ensure fairness, not a fraudulent overpayment,” Duale said.