NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 26 – A Kenyan citizen has threatened to take legal action against the Health Ministry within 14 days should it fail to address issues raised on the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF).
Mutua Mutuku, through her lawyers, raised concerns about the transparency and fairness of the SHIF’s operations, seeking clarifications on an array of issues bordering privacy, including Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA), Data Protection Policy, Data Privacy Notice, and Details of the Data Protection Officer.
Mutuku in a letter to Health Cabinet Secretary Deborah Mlongo highlighted apprehensions about the SHIF’s planned adoption of an automatic decision-making system to assess household income and determine affordability for contributions.
Mutuku fears that this system could lead to inequality and arbitrariness in public service delivery, as there is a lack of transparency on how these automated decisions will be made.
She argues that the directive by the Ministry requiring all school-going children to register as dependents of their parents before the start of the third term in 2024 has raised alarms about the protection of minors’ sensitive data.
“In addition to the aforementioned, the ministry has informed us via electronic and print media that all school-going children must register as dependents of their parents prior to the start of the third term in 2024. This is particularly distributing because the sensitive data of minors will be processed without any data protection by default and design components, and more specifically and the data protection impact assessment,” it read in part.
Last week, the government called on parents to register all school-going children as dependents on the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) before the commencement of the third term.
This directive follows the enactment of the Social Health Insurance Act 2023, which came into effect on November 22, 2023.
Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang in a communiqué asserted that the government, through the Social Health Authority, has developed enhanced benefits for a package specifically tailored for students.
The scheme will retain the Edu Afya identity under the NHIF, which SHIF replaces.
The new law required every Kenyan, including children, to register as a member of the SHIF.
The government rolled out a nationwide registration campaign on July 1 in efforts to expedite the realization of universal health coverage.
The government is banking on a grace period provided by the Court of Appeal in its ruling exempting SHIF—the Digital Health Act, Primary Healthcare Act, and Social Health Insurance Act—from an injunction.
The Court of Appeal had on August 15 extended a stay on a High Court order halting transition from NHIF to SHIF pending further orders.
In a ruling delivered by a three-judge bench on August 15, Appellate Court Judges—JJustices Francis Tuiyott, Justice Ali Aroni, and Lydia Achode—ordered the status quo be maintained until September 20, when the court will deliver a ruling.
