State accused of hijacking clergy forum
By George Kebaso, October 15, 2024The government hijacked a meeting organised by the leadership of the Faith Based health facilities to issue a statement in protest to the transition to the Social Health Authority (SHA) that has caused untold suffering to patients seeking healthcare services there.
It is understood that the religious organisations operating hospitals were in the final stages of a dialogue to come up with a position on the ongoing transition from the defunct National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) to SHA when Medical Services Principal Secretary, Harry Kimtai arrived.
“The religious leaders were finalising a press statement to air their concerns on the difficulties to register onto the SHA IT system, and the outstanding debts owed to the facilities under the Faith based organisations, but it looks like it leaked to State House,” said a source who cannot be named at this point for not authorised to speak directly to the media.
The source also thinks State House is sensitive about the technical challenges the SHA system is facing, and the reason they instructed the religious leaders not attempt airing them.
However, with this move the question could be; did the government set itself against the faith-based organisations for committing to addressing those challenges, some within the next 14 days?
The religious health facilities include those under the Christian Hospitals Association of Kenya (CHAK), Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (SUPKEM) and Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB).
However, Kimtai announced the formation of a Committee – which he chairs – to fast track the payment of pending bills owed to these facilities. He gave the Committee express orders to meet with the National Treasury to resolve the challenge, which the Ministry acknowledged is huge.
Whereas, it was not established how much the defunct National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) owes the facilities, CHAK says, it runs into billions of shillings.
The Committee kicked off the sittings yesterday, and in its maiden meeting with the Treasury, started to review the outstanding debts to establish how much is owed to faith-based hospitals.