Moses Kuria defends SHA data ownership as audit raises concerns

President William Ruto's senior economic advisor, Moses Kuria, has addressed concerns over the ownership and security of data under the Social Health Authority (SHA) system.

His remarks follow an Auditor-General’s report that revealed the government invested Sh104.9 billion in the system without fully reviewing key clauses in the contract.

One of the issues raised in the report is that the government lacks direct control over the system, meaning private entities managing it may have access to critical Kenyan data. This has sparked serious concerns about data security and privacy.

Speaking on Citizen TV’s JKLive show, Kuria dismissed claims that the data is stored outside Kenya, stating that the Digital Health Authority owns the data and operates three data centres within the country.

“The Digital Health Authority is the single owner of the data. They have three data centres, the main data centre and the redundancy data centres, all of them within the Republic of Kenya. The data is domiciled here,” he said.

Kuria also downplayed the audit report’s findings, saying it remains a preliminary assessment until Parliament reviews it.

“There are two stages of an audit report…I give you an audit report, and then you are given a chance to respond. Then it goes to somebody who is the judge and that is Parliament, for the time being the Auditor General’s report is just a report,” he said.

His remarks came in response to Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka, who questioned the security and management of the SHA system.

Onyonka cited the Auditor-General’s report, which raised concerns about three private companies managing the system, including a foreign-owned entity.

“The Auditor General said nobody knows who runs that system. There are three companies, including Safaricom, where they have sorted out a consortium; one company is owned in France. These three companies are the ones that are running management of the money systems, medical systems and the equipment systems,” he stated.

Onyonka questioned why the government, despite having local expertise, had allowed foreigners to manage critical health and financial data.

“The question we are asking is how can our government, with the technical expertise and young people who are bright and intelligent, not be able to domicile the system that is running your money, health and everything in the Ministry of Health be domiciled to foreigners?” he posed.

President William Ruto has dismissed claims that the government spent Sh104 billion on procuring the SHA system.

Speaking in Malava, Kakamega, during the burial of the late MP Malulu Injendi, he stated that the government would not fund the system beyond a fee-for-service arrangement.

He explained that SHA is operated by a consortium of technology firms tasked with curbing fraudulent claims, a problem that affected the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).

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“Because we want to sort out the problem of fraud of the past. Money that was collected by NHIF was stolen by fraudsters through fraudulent claims, which claimed almost 40% of the money that was being raised by NHIF. That will not happen as long as I’m president,” Ruto said.

The President further claimed that opposition to SHA is being driven by individuals who benefited from NHIF fraud and are now resisting the new system.

“Those complaining are people who have been stealing from us, they don’t want a system that works, because they want to continue stealing from us,” he stated.