A section of Members of Parliament (MPs) on Thursday, November 7, revealed that they have faced challenges enrolling into the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) that is under the Social Health Authority (SHA) a month after its rollout.
The MPs made this revelation when Ministry and SHA officials appeared before the National Assembly Committee of Health to address concerns raised on the scheme.
Moyale MP Jaldesa Guyo claimed that he was having challenges with registering through his national identification number. He stated that this was a reflection of what the majority of Kenyans have gone through.
“Even now as I try to do it, my ID number cannot go through and that means that there are many other Kenyans who have the same problems,” Guyo stated.
Webuye East MP Martin Wanyonyi echoed Guyo’s sentiments stating that the process of getting updates from the new health regulator was frustrating. “The whole issue of delays in terms of updates by the One Time Password (OTP) is really frustrating,” he lamented.
Ndhiwa MP Martin Owino spoke about the system failures experienced when trying to log into the SHA system. He contrasted this with claims by SHA that the system was complete and up and running.
“When I try to log in, it says system failed. Why is the system failing? You submitted to us that the system is completed. Maybe you can define for us the word complete,” the MP stated.
Owino added that if the situation was not dealt with at the grassroots level, it could stem till the national level. “If things fail here, they will fail till Level Six,” he claimed.
While engaging with the health ministry and SHA officials over migration to the new scheme, the National Assembly health committee made a number of recommendations.
The top of these recommendations was for SHA to establish desks at each of the 290 constituencies to ease the challenges faced by Kenyans during registration.
Dagoretti MP Beatrice Elachi urged the ministry and SHA to make use of the SHA community health workers at the constituency level to assist Kenyans. She also recommended a timeline within which the process should be completed.
“The SHA community health workers can work with our constituencies and create a desk to help Kenyans register. We can give ourselves two weeks to get out of this quagmire,” she asserted.
In addition, the chair of the health committee Endebess MP Robert Pukose recommended that the government liaise with Parliament to assist MPs in registering for the new scheme. He argued that this would make it easier for the MPs to drive the government’s message of registration to their constituents.
“The ministry can work with the clerk of the National Assembly to come to demonstrate to MPs how the registration process works and even register MPs who have not yet shifted into SHA. It will become much easier for MPs when they go back to their constituents and explain the entire process,” he stated.
