Okiya Omtatah slams Ruto over Ksh50B SHA controversy
By Ndiritu Wanjiru, March 12, 2026Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah has strongly criticised President William Ruto for dismissing concerns raised over the alleged loss of Ksh50 billion linked to the Social Health Authority (SHA), saying the remarks undermine constitutional oversight institutions and the accountability framework governing public funds.
In a strongly worded response on his X handle on Thursday, March 12, 2026, Omtatah argued that the findings raised by the Office of the Auditor-General cannot simply be brushed aside as propaganda. The senator says that the office is an independent constitutional body that is required to check how public resources are used and report to Parliament and the public.
“The President Is Out of Order. The Office of the Auditor General is a constitutional office, not a department of the State House. Dismissing a report that questions the loss of Ksh50 billion from SHA undermines the Constitution itself. Ksh50 billion is not a clerical error. It is public money collected from the sweat of Kenyans,” Omtatah said.
The senator was responding to what President Ruto said, in which the head of state dismissed reports about the supposed loss of Ksh50 billion and said that the government is currently making record payments to hospitals through the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF). The president said that the government had given health facilities Ksh16.2 billion in just one week. He called the criticism propaganda meant to undermine health reforms that are already in place.
“Forget the propaganda that we lost Ksh50 billion. This week alone, we are paying Ksh16.2 billion for SHIF. We are paying the highest amounts of money to any hospital that has ever been paid under any administration,” Ruto said.
However, Omtatah said the president’s argument misses the central issue. He said that paying hospitals does not answer questions about how public funds collected from Kenyans under the new healthcare financing framework will be managed and who will be held accountable for them.
“To brush aside such findings insults every Kenyan who struggles to access healthcare while public resources disappear. You cannot swear to protect the Constitution on Tuesday and tear it up on Wednesday because the truth hurts,” Omtatah added.
Omtatah said that trying to discredit constitutional oversight institutions could make people less trusting of government programmes, especially the country’s healthcare reforms. He said that millions of Kenyans give money to the fund because they hope it will help people get medical care more easily.