Machakos, 17 February, 2024 / 9:01 pm (ACI Africa).
The National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), Kenya’s parastatal that provides universal health coverage (UHC) to citizens through a medical insurance cover, is dysfunctional and negatively affecting the offering of services in health institutions in the East African nation, including health facilities under the auspices of the Catholic Church, Bishop Norman King’oo Wambua has said.
Speaking during the Diocesan Pilgrimage and Thanksgiving Mass held at the Komarock Shrine in Kenya’s Catholic Diocese of Machakos, his Episcopal See, Bishop King’oo lamented, “I don’t know what happened, but there is no more money.”
“Where is the money? Because as I speak now, as faith leaders in areas where we have hospitals, the debt owed to our institutions by NHIF is worrying. They are outrightly crippling our hospitals,” Bishop Wambua said during February 10 event.
Referring to Bishop Kioko Catholic Hospital, a health facility in his Episcopal See, the Kenyan Catholic Bishop said that the facility is owed some KES.70 million (US$ 540,000.00).
The 72-year-old Bishop, who started his Episcopal Ministry in August 1998 as the Local Ordinary of Kenya’s Bungoma Diocese urged Kenya’s political leadership weigh in on NHIF financial challenges and get funds to health institutions.
