NAIROBI, Kenya — The Central Organization of Trade Unions of Kenya (COTU-K) has urged the government to grant the Social Health Authority (SHA) full control over its IT systems.
In a statement on Tuesday, Secretary General Francis Atwoli said COTU has spent the last month attempting to meet with Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale to address challenges plaguing the national insurance fund, but has been unsuccessful.
COTU argues that SHA’s biggest obstacle is its dependence on an IT system that is separate from the authority itself. This system is currently controlled by the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Digital Health Authority (DHA).
The union believes that for SHA to operate independently, it must have full control of its own technological infrastructure.
“I am painfully unable to explain to workers what is happening at SHA considering that SHA is being used as a conveyer belt to process payments while it does not control the IT system aimed at addressing the very problems created by the defunct NHIF,” Atwoli stated.
“It is even more disturbing that even though SHA has its own independent Board which must be allowed to operate in line with its founding legislation, an amorphous entity, DHA, alongside the Ministry of Health continue to make SHA play secondary to them,” he added.
COTU contends that SHA’s operational shortcomings are because the authority is unable to independently verify or authenticate claims or determine to whom payments should be made.
“As a result, SHA continues to be blamed, erroneously, for all misdeeds of both DHA and MoH,” Atwoli argued. The union also expressed concern that workers are faithfully making contributions under the assumption that the authority has full control of its IT systems, which is not the case.
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“It is the position of COTU (K) that unless SHA is given 100% control of its IT platform, workers will lose the faith and trust they have in the institution and thus affecting compliance and provision of services.”
COTU is considering withdrawing its participation from the SHA Board if these issues are not addressed. The union has announced plans to hold a meeting at the Tom Mboya Labour College to discuss the recent challenges.
In response, Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale has dismissed what he calls “propaganda and blackmail” by “saboteurs” of SHA, as public anger grows over persistent fraud in the government’s healthcare scheme.
This comes after SHA on Monday removed a public portal that allowed anyone to review monthly payments sent to hospitals, as well as the Kenya Master Health Facility Registry (KMHFR), which has fueled further criticism.
