Mwangangi: No early retirement pay, 1,400 NHIF staff still in limbo
SHA Chief Executive Officer Mercy Mwangangi told staff during a virtual address that the authority cannot afford to send home those aged 55 and above who had opted for early retirement.
The Social Health Authority does not have the Sh9 billion needed to pay retirement benefits to hundreds of former National Hospital Insurance Fund workers who had expressed interest in exiting during the transition into the new healthcare system.
SHA Chief Executive Officer Mercy Mwangangi told staff during a virtual address that the authority cannot afford to send home those aged 55 and above who had opted for early retirement.
“In reality, we do not have the requisite funds to send workers on early voluntary retirement as that would cost more than Sh9 billion,” she said on Monday
The transition saw SHA take in more than 1,800 NHIF employees, many of whom are already 60 years old or approaching that age. A large group of workers aged over 55 were reportedly willing to retire early if a package had been made available.
SHA has also been facing internal deployment delays. Dr Mwangangi announced that 215 staff who requested transfers to other government departments will receive their deployment letters from the Public Service Commission by tomorrow.
For the remaining 1,400 workers, the authority will issue job descriptions, system passwords and staff badges to help them resume duties.
Many have remained idle for months without assigned roles or digital access, despite SHA being a fully digitised system.
Some subordinate workers who did not apply for redeployment will be gradually transferred to other departments over the next six months.
Although contract extensions were issued recently, there is still no clarity on how many workers will be absorbed permanently by SHA. Initial signs point to most of them being deployed elsewhere within government.
SHA's internal recruitment plans also suffered a legal setback recently when the Labour Relations Court nullified the authority’s attempt to fill key positions using staff inherited from NHIF only.
In a case filed by Omar Abdile, Justice Byram Ongaya ruled that limiting recruitment to internal staff was discriminatory and violated public service hiring rules, which require positions to be open to all Kenyans.
Separately, SHA has launched a flexible premium payment model dubbed “Lipa SHA Pole Pole” to support Kenyans in the informal sector. The initiative allows individuals to pay health insurance premiums in manageable installments.
President William Ruto praised the programme, saying it would transform the country’s path to universal health coverage.
