Murang’a Governor Irungu Kang’ata has protested the disruption of healthcare services in the county after its Afya.ke digital health platform was switched off, forcing facilities to prepare for a transition to a different system.
In a press statement on Wednesday, October 14, Kang’ata said the shutdown could leave health workers unable to retrieve patients’ medical histories and temporarily interrupt services as the county migrates to the national government’s health management platform.
The governor said the county had started the transition but warned that facilities would require time to restore normal operations.
“Since the year 2020-2023, Murang’a government automated all its hospitals through Afya.ke system,” Kang’ata said.
The platform enables hospitals to record patient information, prescriptions, laboratory results and billing electronically. Its functions also include facilitating remote consultations between healthcare workers and patients in different locations.
“It is like M-Pesa for hospitals. It allows a doctor in Murang’a to treat a patient in Afia dispensary through things like telemedicine,” he said.
Kang’ata attributed improvements in health revenue collection to the system, saying the county’s annual collections had risen from Sh80 million to Sh800 million after its introduction. He said the additional revenue had supported infrastructure expansion and improved medicine availability.
“We used to collect about 80 million per year, but after we brought in Afia.ke, we pushed it to 800 million per year,” he said.
The governor cited developments at Murang’a Level 5 Hospital, Nyakianga Dispensary, Kirwara and Kandara Hospital, as well as the reopening of Kigumo Hospital, as examples of investments made in the county’s health services.
However, the immediate dispute concerns the platform’s integration with the national digital health infrastructure.
Kang’ata said Afya.ke had been developed within the national government but was subsequently expanded and deployed in Murang’a through collaboration with software developers.
He alleged that the Digital Health Agency, Ministry of Health and Social Health Authority declined to certify it for health information exchange.
The governor said he had previously received assurances from Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale that the county system would be integrated with the national platform rather than discontinued.
“This is despite Afya.ke being a free government system, and despite a promise that was made to me by the cabinet secretary in charge of health, Mr Duale, in my presence that Afya.ke would be interconnected to SHA and not shut down,” he said.
Kang’ata said several meetings had been held with national government officials to resolve the disagreement, but the proposed integration had not materialised.
He warned that switching off the system could prevent health workers from accessing historical records accumulated since 2023, complicating treatment for patients returning to county facilities.
“Of course, this interconnection has never happened,” he said.
The governor also questioned the financial implications of migrating to the replacement platform, arguing that the county would incur additional expenses for a system he said was not free.
“Afia.ke is free, but Tibabu, which we shall be joining, is not free,” Kang’ata said.
He said the county would temporarily scale down services while its staff and facilities transitioned to the new system, which he referred to as Tibabu during the statement.
“As a county, what shall we do? We have no option than to run. We have to scale down our services until we are able to join Tibabu,” he said.
Kang’ata urged residents to allow the county two to three days to complete the transition and said officials hoped to restore services by Monday, October 19, subject to the migration proceeding as planned.
The shutdown was reported against the backdrop of a national transition to the Social Health Authority’s Health Management Information System (SHA HMIS), part of the government’s Taifa Care digital health reforms.
In an October 2 statement, the Ministry of Health said the transition from the SHA Provider Portal to the new system was expected to be completed by October 30, 2026. It said the migration was intended to improve health information management, claims processing and interoperability between healthcare providers.
The ministry also said the transition should not interrupt healthcare services, adding that patients would continue receiving care and eligible claims would be processed under the applicable requirements. The announcement did not specifically address the reported shutdown of Afya.ke in Murang’a.
The Digital Health Agency’s certification framework requires digital health systems to undergo assessments covering functionality, data security, privacy and interoperability before certification and approval for deployment.
The framework provides regulatory context for the dispute, although the available public information does not independently establish the specific reasons Afya.ke was not certified.
Kang’ata maintained that the county would proceed with the migration while seeking to restore services, describing the potential loss of access to patient records as his greatest concern.
The extent of any data loss and the duration of service interruptions had not been independently established at the time of his statement.
