Thursday, January 23, 2025 – Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has continued his tirade against President William Ruto, accusing him of not meaning well for Kenyans.
Speaking during a live TikTok
stream on Thursday morning, Gachagua revealed that Ruto ignored an option to
upgrade the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) with a paltry Ksh800
million and went for Social Health Authority (SHA) at the total cost of
Ksh110.9 billion (Ksh6.1 billion for SHA system and Ksh104.8 billion for
supporting technology infrastructure).
According to Gachagua, under the
proposed changes to revamp NHIF, Kenyans would pay Ksh300 to cover the whole
family.
While criticising Ruto’s pet
project, which has been plagued by challenges since its rollout in October last
year, Gachagua described it as rushed and poorly implemented.
“According to experts, it was
possible to reform and improve NHIF at a cost of about Ksh800 million,” he
revealed.
The former second in command,
who has been more vocal since he was bundled out of office in October,
questioned the need for a new healthcare system being deployed under SHA for
Ksh104 billion.
According to him, Kenya Kwanza's
initial plan was to reduce family healthcare contributions from Ksh500 to
Ksh300 while expanding coverage to include all illnesses and chronic
conditions.
“The program was good in
concept, but the implementation has been very wanting. It was rushed without
sufficient consultation with stakeholders,” Gachagua noted.
“We wanted to reduce the monthly
payments to Ksh300 to cover the whole family,” he added.
Ruto has remained bullish over
SHA despite the criticism, insisting SHA is working. However, Gachagua now
says it is not too late to revert to NHIF.
The Kenyan DAILY POST.
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