The High Court has declined to suspend the roll out of the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF), which was launched by the government on October 1.
Instead, Justice Bahati Mwamuye on Tuesday certified the petition by Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah and two others as urgent, and directed the case to be mentioned next week for further directions and a hearing date.
Mr Omtatah, together with lawyer Eliud Matindi and Dr Magare Gikenyi, sought a temporary order, suspending the planned rollout of the programme, which replaced the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).
“The notice of motion application dated 30/09/2024 be and is hereby certified urgent and it shall be heard on a priority basis,” said the judge.
The court directed Mr Omtatah to immediately serve the court papers on the respondents, including Health Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa, Attorney General Dorcas Oduor, Safaricom and Apeiro Limited.
In the petition, Mr Omtatah faulted the government for rolling out the programme without enacting the subsidiary legislation required to operationalise the Social Insurance Health Act.
“The petitioners reiterate that the SHIF cannot be rolled out in the absence of enabling subsidiary legislation issued under the SHA Act and approved by Parliament to operationalise it,” Mr Omtatah said.
The petitioners have also questioned the procurement of the Safaricom consortium to provide an Integrated Healthcare Information Technology System (IHTS) for Universal Health Care (UHC) at a cost of Sh104.8 billion.
Apeiro Limited, the largest shareholder in the Safaricom consortium, was awarded the tender for the technology-based system for the UHC programme.
The legislator argued that the procurement for the Safaricom consortium was suspect because it was not transparent, competitive and cost-effective.
According to the petitioners, the request for proposal was allegedly issued on May 9, 2024 and on May 15, the consortium submitted its technical and financial proposals.
“Unbelievably, upon alleged evaluation on the same date, the procuring entity issued a notification of intention to award contract under the letter Ref No. MOH/PROC/GEN/MF/ADSCMS/VOL.1 of 16th May 2024,” Mr Omtatah said.
He claimed that the SHA was being implemented using two legal notices- the Social Health Insurance (General) Regulations, 2024 and The Social Health Insurance (Tribunal Procedure) Rules, 2024- which were annulled by the Senate.
