President William Ruto has strongly criticized hospitals and individuals rushing to court to block the Pending Medical Claims Verification Committee, insisting that accountability must come before payments.
Speaking on Sunday after a church service at St Peter’s ACK Cathedral in Siaya County, Ruto warned that his administration will not release any public funds without thorough verification. He stressed that corruption in hospitals will no longer thrive under the government’s digital monitoring systems.
He explained that the Social Health Authority’s (SHA) digital platform has exposed long-running fraud previously concealed under the defunct National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF). According to him, hospitals resisting verification are essentially shielding corrupt dealings.
“The reason why we are unearthing the theft and the corruption in hospitals is because our SHA digital system is able to detect the fraud that people have carried out for many years under NHIF. Why do we have Sh30 billion NHIF debt? When we say let us verify that debt, hospitals go to court saying they don’t want verification because they know there is theft. We are not going to pay until we verify, because we are not going to spend public money to pay corrupt people,” he said.
Ruto added that every hospital involved in siphoning NHIF funds must answer for its actions.
“Any hospital, whether government, private or church, that has stolen NHIF funds will pay, and those bringing corruption into SHA will be held accountable in court. We must be accountable for all public resources put at our disposal as government,” he declared.
Court Quashes NHIF Claims Verification Team
His remarks came just as the High Court in Eldoret nullified the Pending Medical Claims Verification Committee, which Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale had established on March 28 to scrutinize NHIF claims.
Justice Reuben Nyakundi held that the committee, which was formed under gazette notice No. 4069 of March 28, 2025, had no legal mandate and violated Article 31 of the Constitution as well as the SHA Act. He pointed out that the CS had no statutory or constitutional mandate to set up the committee, referring to it as unconstitutional.
The ruling followed a petition by Nakuru-based activist Dr. Magare Gikenyi, who argued that the panel would undermine the roles of the Auditor General and internal audit offices. He further raised concerns that the committee could unlawfully expose patients’ sensitive health records without consent, contrary to Digital Health Authority regulations.
“Handpicking people who are not employees of NHIF and or SHA (its predecessor), nor public servants, nor staff of the auditor general to look into sensitive and confidential medical records of patients in the name of claim verification and exposing private data and patients’ disease conditions is against Article 31 of the Constitution,” read the petition in part.
Justice Nyakundi upheld these concerns, stating that any audit of public health funds must remain the exclusive mandate of the Auditor General as required by the Constitution.
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