Has SHA collapsed following the transition to HMIS? 

By Frank Abura.

On October 1, 2026, an X account, @PeterReagan777, claimed the Social Health Authority (SHA) had collapsed and that KSh104 billion had allegedly ended up in the pockets of a few individuals. The post also attributed a prediction to former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, claiming that he had said SHA would collapse within six months. 

At the time of review, the post had garnered more than 22,000 views, 443 reposts and 973 likes.

The account @PeterReagan777, which has about 5000 followers, regularly shares political and current affairs content on X. Its recent posts are heavily focused on Kenyan politics, government criticism and claims involving President William Ruto and his Administration.

Background

The Social Health Authority (SHA) was established under the Social Health Insurance Act, 2023, to administer Kenya’s new health insurance framework and replaced the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF). SHA began operations in October 2024 as part of the government’s efforts to implement Universal Health Coverage.

Since its establishment, SHA has faced criticism over delayed payments to healthcare providers, claims processing, and the reliability of its digital systems. The government has, however, continued implementing and modifying the system.

On March 29, 2026, former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua warned that SHA would collapse within six months. Speaking during a church service at ACK Diocese of Kirinyaga, Gachagua claimed that he had information indicating that SHA would collapse and that this would trigger a major health crisis. He also alleged that hospitals, particularly faith-based facilities, were owed billions of shillings.

The prediction therefore placed the alleged collapse around September 29, 2026. The claims resurfaced on October 1, 2026, and presented the government’s transition from the SHA Provider Portal to HMIS as evidence that Gachagua had been proved right.

The latest development concerns the transition from the SHA Provider Portal to health facilities’ Health Management Information Systems (HMIS), which is a digital platform used to collect, store, manage, and analyze health-related information. On October 1,2026, Health CS Aden Duale announced that facilities that had not completed the transition have until October 30 to do so. The Ministry said the change was intended to reduce duplication because hospitals had been using their own HMIS for routine operations while separately submitting claims through the SHA portal.

Verification

The two systems are being presented in the post as though one is replacing SHA. However, the Ministry of Health describes the change as a migration between digital systems used by health facilities, not the abolition of SHA.

According to the Ministry of Health, the HMIS transition is part of the government’s digital health programme and is intended to integrate hospitals’ existing information systems with SHA. It is therefore a change in how health facilities interact digitally with SHA, rather than evidence that SHA has been shut down.

The Ministry further stated that patients would continue receiving healthcare services during the transition, including at facilities that had not yet migrated fully to HMIS. This contradicts the post’s suggestion that the transition demonstrates the collapse of the health insurance authority.

The X post therefore combines two separate developments, Gachagua’s March prediction and the October HMIS transition, and presents them as evidence of the collapse of SHA. The available evidence does not support that conclusion

Verdict

The claim that SHA has collapsed is MISLEADING.