NAIROBI, Kenya Mar 2-The Social Health Authority (SHA) has announced a major service interruption affecting its digital health platform, disrupting pre-authorisation services across contracted healthcare facilities nationwide.
In a public notice dated March 2, 2026, SHA Chief Executive Officer Dr Mercy Mwangangi said the outage followed a critical system failure on March 1 that rendered key services provided through the Digital Health Agency unavailable.
The disruption has directly affected pre-authorisation processes a core component of SHA operations that enables hospitals and clinics to seek approval for specific treatments and procedures before offering services to patients under the national health scheme.
“Following a critical system failure on 1st March 2026, the SHA digital platform has experienced a downtime. This outage has interrupted essential healthcare service delivery across contracted healthcare facilities, specifically affecting pre-authorisation processes,” the notice reads in part.
SHA acknowledged the gravity of the interruption, particularly for healthcare providers who rely on the system for approvals and claims processing.
“We understand the critical nature of these services for your daily operations and patient care, and we sincerely apologise for the significant inconvenience and disruption this is causing,” the authority said.
The agency added that its technical teams are working closely with the Digital Health Agency to resolve what it termed as a “major incident” that has led to significant system unavailability.
“Our technical teams, in close collaboration with the Digital Health Agency, are fully mobilised and working with the highest urgency to identify the root cause and restore full functionality as quickly as possible,” the statement said.
The outage is likely to affect patient flow in both public and private facilities contracted under SHA, as pre-authorisation is required for a range of specialised treatments, admissions and procedures.
Healthcare providers have been asked to remain patient as restoration efforts continue, with SHA pledging to issue regular updates until services are fully reinstated.
“We greatly appreciate your patience and understanding during this challenging period. We are committed to resolving this issue urgently,” the authority said.
SHA operates its digital platform as the backbone of claims management and service verification under restructured national health financing framework.
