President William Ruto said the government will only pay the National Health Insurance Fund’s (NHIF) Ksh30 billion debt once all claims are properly verified.

Speaking on Sunday, August 31, 2025, after a church service at St. Peter’s ACK Cathedral in Siaya County, the president stressed that public funds must not be lost to fraud, adding that technology had now made it possible to detect corruption that had gone on for years in the health sector.

“We are not going to pay until we verify. Because we are not going to spend public money to pay corrupt people,” he said firmly.

The Head of State explained that the government would not bow to pressure from hospitals seeking quick payment without accountability. He added that health facilities, whether private, public, or faith-based, would be compelled to refund any money wrongly taken from NHIF or the new Social Health Authority (SHA). Those found guilty would also be taken to court.

Hospitals resist debt verification

Ruto further noted that some hospitals had rushed to court to stop the verification process, which he said was proof that fraud had been committed.

“The reason why we are unearthing the theft and the corruption in hospitals is because our systems in SHA, the digital system, is now able to detect the fraud that people have carried out for many years under NHIF. Why do we have 30 billion shillings debt in NHIF today? And when we say, let’s do a verification of that 30 billion, the hospitals go to court and say they don’t want verification,” he explained.

When NHIF transitioned into the Social Health Authority (SHA), it carried forward an existing debt of Ksh30 billion that the government was expected to settle. However, Ruto made it clear that these claims would not be honoured blindly, insisting that every shilling must first be verified to ensure it does not cover fraudulent payments.

The president linked the reforms in SHA to his wider war on corruption in government, pointing out that digitisation was also being rolled out in public procurement to stop inflated contracts. He said e-procurement would ensure transparency in how tenders are awarded and protect taxpayers from being overcharged.

“Something worth two shillings should not be bought for ten just because of corruption in procurement. We are going digital so that every Kenyan can see what was bought, for how much, and from whom,” he said. “Any officer who is not ready to work with us in e-procurement should leave government.”

Ruto concluded by insisting that accountability and transparency were the foundation of building a fair and prosperous Kenya.