Mwangangi takes over reins at national health insurer

By and , June 4, 2025

Dr Mercy Mwangangi has officially assumed the role of CEO at the Social Health Authority (SHA) following her appointment in April, 2025.

Mwangangi, a former Chief Administrative Secretary for Health, on June 3, 2025, outlined her strategy, which is based on a five-priority agenda.

She announced that 41,000 Kenyans have engaged with the Lipa Pole Pole platform, one of SHA’s latest initiatives aimed at making health insurance more affordable.

President William Ruto unveiled the new innovation during the Madaraka Day celebrations in Homabay over the weekend.

“We have to be clear about what we are going to do during the time we will be here because this is a social contract between the government and Kenyans. Personally, I am really excited about this new innovation,” Mwangangi stated.

The former CAS revealed that since her appointment in April, she has spent most of her time benchmarking with the best SHA-implementing countries in Europe and Asia, a journey that also took her to the Scandinavian region.

“I have five key focus areas that will guide the work we intend to build on the SHA scheme,” she remarked.

Mwangangi, described by Medical Services Principal Secretary, Dr Ouma Oluga, as a health economist of international repute, pointed out that the key is to start rebuilding trust among Kenyans through transparency.

“We want to put in place a transparent process where premiums that come into the Authority and pay-outs are all in the public domain,” she explained, noting that SHA will publish a scorecard detailing its first nine months in office in the coming month.

She said that together with her team, they will embark on strengthening Primary Healthcare as the basic level of delivery of services to practically address the country’s burden of disease.

Mwangangi also said her team will strive to encourage shared responsibility and equity, explaining that in healthcare delivery, it means that everyone has equal access to high-quality services, regardless of their background or location, and a shared commitment among all stakeholders to ensure that happens.

This, she said, means that it will include the government, healthcare providers, insurance companies, and individuals, all working together to address health disparities and improve overall population health.

“Equitable health services should provide care that does not vary in quality on account of age, sex, gender, race as a social construct, and ethnicity or indignity,” she stated.

In shared responsibility and equity, nothing is left behind, including geographical location, religion, socioeconomic status, migrant status, disability, language, sexual orientation, and political affiliation.

Another priority area, according to the new SHA boss, Mwangangi, is the element of engaging with the community.

This will enable the Authority to listen to the people and sensitise them on the importance of social involvement in their health.

“We are also going to adopt innovation in all our SHA operations to minimise human error and ensure efficiency, and this is in relation to the times we are in, where Artificial Intelligence and deep innovation are realities,” she said.

She lauded the new innovation as an instrument and tenet of this social contract.

“It’s a realisation that all Kenyans need to live with dignity and need to access health care services, and our labour force in Kenya, accessing their income in different ways,” Mwangangi stated.

There are those of us who are salaried and therefore get deductions. When constructing the SHA, there are two key principles: pooling risk and pooling resources, Dr. Mwangangi added.

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