“Kim­bu kien­daa kavola ni kwaa muin­gi.” A chameleon moves slow­ly because no one is chas­ing it. How­ev­er, touch its tail, and you’ll be shocked at how fast it bolts! This old Kam­ba proverb reflects the sto­ry of Kenya’s pub­lic health­care reform. For years, the Nation­al Health Insur­ance Fund (NHIF) crawled along, bur­dened by scan­dals, inef­fi­cien­cies, and a grow­ing trust deficit. Then came the call for change, and the gov­ern­ment, like the star­tled chameleon, final­ly sprang into action. The result? The Social Health Author­i­ty (SHA).

Health­care in Kenya has long been a nation­al con­cern. From unaf­ford­able bills to inac­ces­si­ble care, it often felt like a mat­ter of when, not if, you would raise mon­ey to save a loved one. Suc­ces­sive gov­ern­ments pledged reforms, but progress remained painful­ly slow until now.

SHA is start­ing to tell a dif­fer­ent story.

I recent­ly wit­nessed this shift first­hand. A relative’s hos­pi­tal bill of Kshs 1.1 mil­lion was large­ly cov­ered through the Kenya Asso­ci­a­tion of Retired Offi­cers. But the real sur­prise? SHA con­tributed Kshs 335,000, reduc­ing the family’s bur­den to just Kshs 96,000. That’s not the­o­ry. That’s transformation.

And it’s not an iso­lat­ed case. Accord­ing to Dr. Ouma Olu­ga, Prin­ci­pal Sec­re­tary for Med­ical Ser­vices, more than 22.6 mil­lion Kenyans had reg­is­tered under SHA by May 2025, with 775,000 new reg­is­tra­tions record­ed in April alone. Over 1.2 mil­lion ben­e­fi­cia­ries have already accessed ser­vices, with claims worth Kshs 45 bil­lion processed. These are not pro­jec­tions; they are results.

One of the biggest wins is the revi­tal­iza­tion of Lin­da Mama, a life­line for preg­nant women. The Min­istry of Health now pro­vides Kshs 10,000 for nor­mal deliv­er­ies and Kshs 30,000 for Cae­sare­an sec­tions. In a coun­try where giv­ing birth can lead to finan­cial ruin, this rep­re­sents a sig­nif­i­cant leap forward.

I appre­ci­ate that SHA goes beyond just cov­er­ing costs; it also pro­motes smart health­care. A new Health Infor­ma­tion Exchange sys­tem allows patient records to flow seam­less­ly between facil­i­ties. Unbe­liev­ably, there will be no more dupli­cate tests or guess­work, and this is what dig­ni­ty through effi­cien­cy looks like.

Some faith-based hos­pi­tals had sus­pend­ed ser­vices due to delayed reim­burse­ments, but they are now hap­pi­ly back. Their frus­tra­tions were under­stand­able, espe­cial­ly for insti­tu­tions long trust­ed to serve the under­served. How­ev­er, they must also address their inter­nal bot­tle­necks, some of which are con­cern­ing and unbe­com­ing of the val­ues they rep­re­sent. To restore pub­lic trust and ensure seam­less care, the gov­ern­ment must urgent­ly and trans­par­ent­ly resolve all out­stand­ing issues, no mat­ter how small, because in the eyes of jus­tice and human­i­ty, no con­cern is triv­ial and no life is dispensable.

Hon­est­ly, we also need to look inward. Some Kenyans dis­miss pub­lic pro­grams too quick­ly with­out giv­ing them a fair chance. Many of us fail to reg­is­ter or expect mir­a­cles from pri­vate hos­pi­tals that we can­not afford, then we blame the sys­tem. SHA is mak­ing strides. It uti­lizes a means-test­ing approach to assess one’s abil­i­ty to pay, which is trans­for­ma­tive for fair­ness and targeting.

But Wak­enya ni nani? On a light note, I wouldn’t be sur­prised if some peo­ple reg­is­ter using their broke uncle’s phone num­ber to appear less capa­ble. Haki, we are our own loopholes!

While sys­tems improve, aware­ness con­tin­ues to be the miss­ing link. Many Kenyans still don’t under­stand how SHA works or how to join it. Even the best reforms risk falling flat with­out ongo­ing pub­lic edu­ca­tion and grass­roots out­reach. A pow­er­ful sys­tem must also be under­stood, as only informed cit­i­zens can dri­ve last­ing change.

Hon. Aden Duale, the Health Cab­i­net Sec­re­tary, and his team deserve cred­it for this momen­tum. How­ev­er, this pace must be maintained.

To SHA imple­menters, main­tain the momen­tum. To Kenyans, our health is too pre­cious for pol­i­tics. Demand account­abil­i­ty, but above all, con­tribute to the solution.

The chameleon’s tail has been touched, and now it’s zoom­ing like it heard that Unga is going for fifty bob! Let’s not be the pot­holes that slow it down. This is our moment. Think green. Act green!