CS for Health Aden Duale
By IP reporter.
NAIROBI, Kenya (IP)
The government will absorb 7,414 Universal Health Coverage (UHC) staff into the public service starting September 2025, after a nationwide headcount .
The aim is to clean up the payroll revealed hundreds of ghost workers.
Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale said the verification exercise conducted by the State Department for Medical Services and the Council of Governors identified 7,629 workers under the UHC program.
215 people were found to be either non-existent or unqualified.
“Out of the 7,629 staff verified, 215 did not present themselves having been identified as either non-existent or not qualified health professionals. Their salaries have been stopped and they have been removed from the payroll pending further investigations to prosecute, determine and recover the irregular payment,” Duale said in a statement Monday.
The 7,414 workers cleared in the audit will be categorized into two groups: those in active service and those facing disciplinary action.
Only active staff will be formally absorbed into government service in September 2025.
Cases involving absenteeism or misconduct will be reviewed in consultation with the Public Service Commission (PSC) under its 2020 Human Resource Regulations.
At the same time the ministry has moved to block fraudulent hospital claims worth Ksh.10.6 billion, citing widespread malpractice under the Social Health Authority (SHA).
Duale said audits exposed hospitals inflating bills, falsifying records, converting outpatient visits into inpatient admissions and billing phantom patients.
Among the facilities flagged was Nabuala Hospital in Bungoma, accused of filing multiple caesarean section claims for the same patient within days.
Kotiende Medical Centre in Homa Bay allegedly produced fabricated clinical records signed by a single individual for both day and night shifts over consecutive days.
“These actions contravene Section 48(5) of the Social Health Insurance Act, 2023, which prescribes penalties for providers who knowingly alter or falsify information to defraud the Authority,” Duale said.
Since the rollout of TaifaCare last October, SHA has received claims totaling Ksh.91.7 billion from hospitals under the Primary Health Care (PHC) and Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) schemes.
Of this amount, Ksh.60.7 billion has been paid with another Ksh.6.4 billion approved for disbursement.
Data shows that Ksh.9 billion in PHC claims have been submitted of which Ksh.7.7 billion has been paid.
For SHIF, hospitals submitted Ksh.82.7 billion in claims with Ksh.53 billion already disbursed.
Another Ksh.7.6 billion in claims for August remains under review.
Duale said not all claims are legitimate.
“Claims worth Ksh.3 billion are being re-evaluated due to missing documents, while an additional Ksh.2.1 billion is under surveillance for further investigation,” he said.
The minister stressed that the government is committed to protecting public resources while ensuring health facilities that follow the law are compensated promptly.
