Focus on resolving SHA crisis, not winning debates, MPs tell Duale
By Joel Masibo, October 14, 2025Parliamentary health committee chair James Nyikal has directed embattled Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale to find a lasting solution regarding the problems revolving around the Social Health Authority (SHA), other than proving a point by winning debates in discussions around the riddled national health cover.
Speaking on Tuesday, October 14, 2025, during the Health Committee meeting with CS Duale, chair James Nyikal said Aden Duale’s priority should be winning back the trust of Kenyans by improving SHA for the public’s benefit.
”If I really wanted to go by the rules, maybe I would have closed this meeting, but as I said, it is more important to get a point which I can now go and work on. As a committee, what really prompted us is when we put out the money for the Primary Healthcare Fund, the Ksh13 billion, and the emergency and chronic illness Ksh38 billion. As a matter of monitoring implementation, let us know how this thing is working,” Nyikal said.
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”We do not come here to win public debates or to win press debates. Look at the important issues that have been raised to make SHA work for Kenyans,” James Nyikal added.
Heated exchange
Meanwhile, James Nyikal spoke after drama ensued in the National Assembly’s Health Committee session earlier, following a heated exchange between Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale and Kitutu Chache South MP Antony Kibagendi over Social Health Authority (SHA) fraud claims.
The session quickly turned into chaos and confrontation as MP Kibagendi disrupted the proceedings, accusing the Cabinet Secretary of attempting to intimidate the committee.
The situation got worse as the MP ignored the call of order from the committee chair before he was escorted out of the room by the sergeants-at-arms.
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As the legislator was exiting, CS Aden Duale kept insisting that he would close more health facilities owned by the MP, having shut down two of them earlier over reported SHA irregularities, while Kibagendi denied owning any hospital.
“You are conflicted. You should not even be sitting in this committee. We have closed some of your hospitals and will close even more,” Duale fired back at Kibagendi.
Later, after the drama, Anthony Kibagendi posted on his social media pages, saying, “Each time I ask CS DUALE hard questions about SHA, he quickly switches to saying he has closed my hospitals (I don’t know which ones) and that is why I am hard on him.”
“Why can’t Duale openly say which hospitals I own, when they were registered and who are even my proxies? And then go ahead to close them completely. Now he can answer our questions about the inadequacies and conflicts of interest he has in SHA,” he said.