CPA Geoffrey Mwangi’s critique of Kenya’s healthcare financing system serves as a stark wake-up call. Without adequate and ongoing funding, the newly formed Social Health Authority (SHA) risks becoming merely another empty reform structure full of potential but lacking authority. For Kenya to build a functional and reliable health system, restoring public trust must become a top priority.
Drawing from his tenure at NHIF, Mwangi highlighted a critical operational success: processing payments to accredited health facilities within 14 days of claim submission. This wasn’t merely good administration it was a vital backbone for service continuity. It ensured that healthcare providers, especially in rural and faith-based facilities, could remain open, retain staff, stock essential supplies, and continue serving patients with dignity.
Unfortunately, that momentum is now under threat. Under SHA, delays in disbursements and persistent underfunding are creating dangerous bottlenecks. Clinics are strained, providers are demoralized, and patients are beginning to lose faith in a system that promised universal coverage but is failing to deliver it.
Healthcare reform must go beyond ambitious headlines and policy announcements. It must translate into dependable, real-world impact for everyday Kenyans from mothers in understaffed maternity wards to children in remote dispensaries waiting for care. That transformation requires more than political will; it requires strategic, timely, and well-managed investment.
For millions, access to healthcare isn’t a policy debate it’s a matter of life and death. Reform must be matched with resources. Because without funding, even the best-designed systems collapse. And when healthcare collapses, people suffer.
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