Twists and turns in new health insurance are dizzying, could make folks seriously ill

Social Health Authority building in Nairobi. [File, Standard]

On Wednesday, I received a notification from an entity called SHA. “Your NHIF account has been migrated successfully to Social Health Authority. To update your profile, dial…”

I decided to visit the listed website sha.go.ke, to review how they managed this fete, but the site went round and round until I started feeling kizunguzungu. That means dizziness—mark you, I wasn’t unwell though instantly developed those symptoms. So, one can imagine what sick Kenyans are going through, trying to access SHA services.

Still, I count myself lucky, as Kenyans reported spending hours to register on the portal, after being subjected to a barrage of very intrusive questions. I understand the government is interested in collecting data, not just about our income levels and areas of residence, but the type of roof we have over our heads, or if your sewer waste is directed to a septic tank or directed to the roads during rainy season.

They also seek to know your source of water—even though they are well aware that corrupt cartels at City Hall long clogged water pipes—and Kenyans have to regularly purchase water at exorbitant rates, not to mention the health hazards of transporting drinking water in the same trucks that carry human waste.

The respectful title for those trucks, I understand, is honey sucker, which affirms that Kenyans’ good sense of humour which turns even unsavoury feacal matter into something palatable.

But many Kenyans are suffering with bitterness over this SHA manenos that’s being shoved down their throats, even though no one has volunteered to explain why the National Health Insurance Fund had to be overhauled.

We acknowledge the NHIF has been looted blind over the years, and there are fears SHA is being prepped for monumental heists in future. If that was the intent, then there was no need to institute a complete overhaul. We as Kenyans are so generous, we could have given those crooks free cash and save us the nightmare that’s roiling the nation.

I understand faith-based hospitals are owed multiple billions of shillings by NHIF and patients awaiting procedures had to pay out of pocket because their old accounts had been dissolved, and SHA was yet to take effect. Bure kabisa.