High Court quashes Aden Duale's NHIF pending bills verification committee
Nakuru-based activist Dr Magare Gikenyi had filed a petition before the court to invalidate the committee, and Justice Nyakundi granted the orders sought by the medic.
The high court has quashed the Pending Medical Claims Verification Committee formed by Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale on March 28 to audit claims against the defunct National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF).
Justice Reuben Nyakundi of the High Court in Eldoret ruled that the committee established under gazette notice No. 4069 of March 28, 2025, has no statutory basis and was in contravention of Article 31 of the Constitution and the Social Health Authority (SHA) Act.
Justice Nyakundi said the CS has no powers under the Constitution or the National Government and Coordination Act to empanel a committee and specifically the NHIF claims verification committee, and is therefore unconstitutional in its entirety.
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Nakuru-based activist Dr Magare Gikenyi had filed a petition before the court to invalidate the committee, and Justice Nyakundi granted the orders sought by the medic.
"Upon considering the pleadings, submissions, replying affidavits and attendant authorities, I find that the petition is merited. In the premises, the petition succeeds," stated Nyakundi.
"The powers exercised through conferred by the legislation were used for a purpose different from that envisaged by the law under which they were granted to the cabinet secretary. This was a void decision being invalid from its inception, and from the standpoint of the constitution, it has no legal effect."
Dr Gikenyi had argued that the committee would have usurped the powers and functions of the independent office of the Auditor General and those of the internal audit office.
The medic said that the actions of the CS exposed patients' sensitive and confidential data about their sicknesses to other people without the patients' consent and to the extent contravening the digital health records contrary to provisions of the Digital Health Authority (DHA).
"The petitioners have a legitimate expectation that all state officers and state organs had to follow the constitution, including the statutory requirements of ensuring that they should never perform functions of independent commissions and offices, and if there was any contrary to this expectation (the CS) violated the legitimate expectations of Kenyans," the judgment reads.
Dr Gikenyi had listed the constitutional violations, including the Bill of Rights, that were threatened by the CS in appointing the committee.
The committee had been appointed to carry out the purported audit in three months, with a possibility of being extended should there be a need, but it is now barred from taking office.
The medic argued that the CS should have required the Auditor General to carry out the audit if there was any need for the same, but did not have the power to establish any other institution to do the work of the constitutional institution established for carrying out public audits.
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