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| Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah |
Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah and two others have moved to court to block the roll-out of the contentious Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) ahead of its scheduled launch on Tuesday.
Omtatah, together with Eliud Matindi and Magare Gikenyi, on Monday, moved the High Court seeking interim orders suspending SHIF’s implementation on the grounds that the subsidiary legislation required to operationalise the Social Insurance Health Act, was not in place.
Under a certificate of urgency, the three want the court to quash the subsidiary legislation which they argue is illegally and unconstitutionally being used to implement the health insurance fund.Further, Omtatah and his co-petitioners want the court to suspend, and later quash the State’s move to contract the Safaricom consortium to provide the Ksh.104 billion healthcare information technology system for Universal Health Care (UHC).
The Safaricom consortium comprises Safaricom Plc, Konvergenz Network Solutions Limited, and Apeiro Limited and the controversial tender was awarded through direct procurement.
“The petitioners have attached to their petition highly classified documents which expose the entire fraud scheme between corrupt government operatives and highly connected wheeler dealers in the Safaricom consortium,” read court papers.
“Though the Safaricom consortium masquerades as investors, the truth of the matter is that they will not invest even a single cent into the Kenyan economy. They are basic computer software vendors, who will retain all rights to their product, including the right to sell it to third parties, as they charge Kenyans for using it.”
They submit that there is no justification for contracting the consortium.
With SHIF, all Kenyans are required to part with 2.75 per cent of their income, with the base contribution being Ksh.300.
But the scheme’s rollout has sparked criticism from Kenyans, especially concerning why the government needed to roll out the Ksh.100 billion programme to replace the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) instead of improving it.
By Dennis Musau
