Lead image for Duale breaks silence on SHA's controversial 2pc deduction.
The government has admitted to the two per cent deduction on every SHA claim, confirming that the money is channelled to the Digital Health Agency to run the national health information system.
The admission follows months of hospital owners demanding to see the legal basis for the charge, and a Nation investigation that revealed facilities were told the fee existed without ever being shown the clause authorising it.
In a statement dated August 4, 2026, Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale said the fee is not paid to a private company but to the Digital Health Agency, a State body established under Section 5 of the Digital Health Act 2023, to support the Comprehensive Integrated Health Information System.
He said the Agency is authorised by Regulation 11(2) of the Digital Health Data Exchange Component Regulations 2025, prescribed in the Third Schedule, and the fee is expressly capped at Sh5,000 per transaction regardless of claim size. Paragraph 2 of the Third Schedule states that the charge for the Health Information Management Service shall not exceed Sh5,000.
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"The service fee is not a discretionary charge," CS Duale said. "It is a capped fee for the use of a system. It is not an open-ended share of any hospital's earnings."
But hospital owners who have been tracking their deductions say the two per cent has been applied to every claim at the stated rate, and are questioning whether the cap is being enforced in practice.
"If a hospital submits a claim for Sh100,000, two per cent is Sh2,000, below the Sh5,000 cap. But if a hospital submits a claim for more than Sh500,000, which the majority of hospitals handling complex procedures or high patient volumes do, two per cent is more than Sh10,000, which exceeds the stated cap. Which is which?" wondered a facility owner.