A private technology firm, Finsprint Limited, has extracted Sh1.2 billion from public health payments intended for hospitals. This sum represents a two percent levy deducted from claims paid by the state-owned Social Health Authority (SHA) up to July 1. The contested charge, labeled the Health Information Management System (HIMS) System Utilisation Fee, is siphoned directly from the value of claims hospitals submit to SHA for patient treatment.
Finsprint Limited, incorporated on July 12, 2020, with a nominal share capital of just Sh100,000, is identified in court documents as the private firm managing this fee. Business Registration Service records show its majority shareholder is Impactsoft Technologies Group Limited, which holds 575 of Finsprint's 1,000 shares. The remaining 425 shares belong to Abdulhakim Ibrahim Sheikh, one of its two directors, alongside Issa Sheikh Mohamed.
Private Pockets, Public Pain
Three petitioners, including Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah, Dr Benjamin Gikenyi Magare, and Eliud Karanja Matindi, have filed a High Court petition challenging these deductions. They allege the government imposed the levy without legal authority, parliamentary approval, or public participation. Dr. Magare discovered the deduction on April 8 of the same year while processing claims at a SHA-accredited facility. He wrote to SHA, the Digital Health Agency, the Health Ministry, and the National Treasury on July 1, seeking a legal basis for the charge but received no explanation.
The petition claims SHA disbursed approximately Sh60.7 billion in claims, from which the Sh1.2 billion was deducted. This two percent levy, the petitioners argue, constitutes taxation outside the constitutional framework for public revenue collection. Dr. Magare states there's "no clear road map where the fee goes and how it is budgeted and appropriated." He further contends that no legislation or statutory authority authorizes this deduction from healthcare providers' claims, asserting it lacks a legal and constitutional basis.
The State as Enabler
The state's apparatus is directly implicated in this scheme of surplus extraction. The petition names SHA, the Health Cabinet Secretary, the Principal Secretary for Medical Services, the SHA chief executive, the Treasury Cabinet Secretary, the Kenya Revenue Authority, the Digital Health Agency, and the Attorney General as respondents. Dr. Magare explicitly states that a government "is not allowed to be an agent of private entities, where they collect money from poor Kenyans and instead of paying service providers, the same is diverted to private entities." This arrangement, he argues, lacks transparency and accountability in dealing with public funds.
Concerns also extend to patient data, with the petition claiming that exposing such information to a third party like Finsprint would violate constitutional privacy protections and the Data Protection Act. The dispute emerges amidst broader scrutiny of SHA's implementation following its transition from the National Health Insurance Fund to a new universal health insurance system. Private hospitals have also questioned unexplained deductions from reimbursement claims, seeking disclosure of the contractual or legal basis for these charges.
Legal Challenge, Systemic Failure
The petitioners seek interim court orders to suspend the two percent HIMS System Utilisation Fee until the case concludes. They also aim to stop the implementation of any instrument authorizing these deductions. While challenging the legality of the deductions, the petition operates within the existing legal framework, seeking to correct procedural flaws rather than dismantle the underlying privatization of public health services. The court has not yet determined the allegations, and the respondents had not filed their responses at the time of publishing this article. The structural mechanism for diverting public health funds to private capital remains in place, pending a legal ruling that addresses only its symptoms, not its root cause.