Why clinical officers want SHA board disbanded

The national chairman Kenya Union of Clinical Officers Peterson Wachira flanked by members addresses the press on 13/12/24 in Naivasha where they accused the Social Health Authority (SHA) board of graft and malpractices. The Union has called for a nationwide demonstration on Monday seeking to have the SHA board disbanded. [Antony Gitonga, Standard]

Members of the Kenya Union of Clinical Officers (KUCO) will on Monday next week take to the streets to demand the disbandment of the Social Health Authority (SHA) board.

The union criticized the board over alleged graft and extortion targeting their members leading to  challenges in the rollout of the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF).

The union which has over 30,000 members warned that it was ready for a nationwide strike in two weeks if their demands were not met.

According to the Union national chairman Peterson Wachira, the current crisis that has rocked the health sector was due to a cartel in the board.

He said that the government owed health facilities billions through the defunct NHIF adding that board members were demanding commission to release the cash.

“We are calling on EACC to investigate these cases as health practitioners and workers are facing extortion from the SHA board,” he said.

Addressing the press in Naivasha, Wachira said that the union had petitioned the President and the Cabinet Secretary for Health to intervene over how the board was carrying out its operations.

“We do not have any problem with the Social Health Insurance Fund but our concern is the cartel in the board that is after cash and introducing new registration rules,” he said.

Wachira noted that the new SHA board had blocked clinicians from the list of service providers yet they operated over 1,000 private facilities in the country.

Flanked by the union officials, he warned that the health sector could collapse due to poor management by senior officers from SHA who had introduced a new funding model.

“The President has promised that the Universal Health Cover should work but this can’t work over the manner that the board is carrying out the rollout,” he said.

The President of, the Kenya Clinical Officers Association Moses Matore called on the President to disband the board and reconstitute it with people keen to realize Universal Health Care (UHC).

Matore noted that due to illegal actions by the SHA board, over 60 percent of private health facilities run by clinical officers faced closure.

He accused the board of illegally excluding clinical officers from empanelment and pre-authorization warning that this would cripple health care delivery.

“Clinical officers are at the heart of primary health care services and by excluding them from offering services, the country’s pursuit of Universal Health Care will fail,” he said.