The Social Health Authority (SHA) has rejected assertions that it paid KSh 20 million to a “ghost hospital” in Homa Bay, describing the reports as false and misleading.
In a statement, SHA clarified that Nyandiwa Health Facility within Suba South, Homa Bay County, has been operational since the 1970s.
It was initially a heretofore Nyandiwa Dispensary, before it was upgraded to a Level 4 hospital.
According to the authority, the hospital still uses its original bank account name “Nyandiwa Dispensary,” a common practice among facilities that began as dispensaries before being upgraded.
SHA explained that the KSh 19.9 million payment in question was legitimate and covered verified claims that had accumulated over time.
The hospital has so far received over KSh 82 million under the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) and more than KSh 751,000 under the Primary Health Care Fund (PHCF) since October 2024.
The agency further clarified that an abandoned structure shown in some media reports was an incomplete project built by a previous county administration and has never been contracted by SHA.
“All our payments are made to active, contracted facilities after strict verification to safeguard public funds. At no point has SHA disbursed money to a ghost facility,” the authority stated.
The payments, SHA added, finance a full range of health care services, from inpatient and outpatient to maternity, surgical, dialysis, and cancer care.
Hospital-to-hospital allocations could easily seem quite different when taken out of context.
The government urged the media to practice specific journalistic responsibility of checking facts with relevant offices before reporting on stories apt to mislead the public
“The public deserves accurate information, especially on health financing reforms that are critical for achieving universal health coverage,” SHA said.
