“Pure Propaganda!” Ruto Rubbishes Sh50 Billion SHA Looting Claims at Joint UDA-ODM Meeting
NAIROBI, Kenya — President William Ruto has launched a fierce defense of the Social Health Authority (SHA), dismissing a recent Auditor General’s report flagging Sh49.3 billion in irregular transactions as “misleading propaganda.” Speaking during a high-profile joint Parliamentary Group meeting of the UDA and ODM parties at the KICC on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, the President insisted that the new health system is more robust than its predecessor and is currently paying out record amounts to hospitals.
The controversy erupted following a landmark audit by Nancy Gathungu, which exposed what she termed “fingerprints of organized plunder” within the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF). The report detailed a series of medically impossible claims, including a single patient allegedly undergoing four open-heart surgeries in one day and a woman reportedly giving birth ten times within a single year. The Auditor General also queried Sh26.8 billion in unsupported claims and Sh3.37 billion in “untraced” transfers between SHIF and SHA.
President Ruto, however, countered that these figures are being misinterpreted to cause public panic. “If we had lost Sh50 billion, there would be nothing left to pay hospitals,” the President told lawmakers, noting that the government disbursed Sh16.2 billion this week alone—the highest single-week payout in the history of Kenya’s public health insurance. He argued that the transition from the defunct NHIF to SHA has been remarkably successful, with over 29.7 million Kenyans already enrolled in the new scheme.
Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale and government advisor Dennis Itumbi clarified that many of the flagged issues were “transition glitches” or accounting provisions rather than actual cash losses. They revealed that the new digital claims system, powered by AI, has already successfully identified and rejected Sh12.7 billion in suspicious or fraudulent claims before any money was paid out. Duale explained that the “four heart surgeries” anomaly was a clerical input error that the system’s automated safeguards flagged for non-payment.
Despite the government’s reassurances, the Auditor General’s report remains a significant blow to the credibility of the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) rollout. The audit also highlighted that the Sh104.8 billion digital system is operated by a private consortium and is not currently owned by the government, raising long-term concerns about oversight. As the UDA-ODM “broad-based” government moves to extend its policy implementation term, the transparency of the SHA will likely remain a central battleground in Kenyan politics heading toward 2027.