NHIF heist: Health CS suspends NHIF managers in mentioned areas
Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha has temporarily suspended NHIF managers in all areas mentioned in an exposé by NTV pending investigations.
Additionally, seven hospitals in those areas have been placed under scrutiny, and the affected hospitals have been directed to promptly transfer their current inpatients to other medical facilities.
In a statement on Monday, the CS ordered for an immediate investigation into the allegations of rogue health facilities minting millions at the expense of Kenyans.
“We are embarking on a verification exercise of all payments across the country to flag out suspicious payments,” the CS said.
On Sunday, NTV exposed medical fraud in various hospitals in Nairobi and Meru counties.
It was unearthed how men and women disguised as healthcare provide hope to the villagers, promising to rescue them from arthritis complications.
They use the name of the National Health Insurance Fund to sway unsuspecting Kenyans.
According to one of the whistleblowers Salesio Mutuma, his petition to the Meru County Assembly and an email to NHIF to investigate were never acknowledged or responded to.
“The rogue medics target elderly women and men with leg or knee problems. After this lady identifies them deep in the villages, she enquires if they are NHIF members and if their cards are up to date. If the patients meet these criteria, she convinces them that they need medical help. These people are called to a chief’s camp, so if you’re called to a chief’s camp for such a meeting, you know that the government knows about it, then they say the programme is being run by the president. So it is very easy to be taken in,” Mutuma told NTV’s Ibrahim Karanja.