NHIF lacks capacity to safeguard members’ funds entrusted to it

The launch of the Sh4 billion NHIF Medical scheme for 3 million secondary school students came a day after I expressed my reservations about the same. A revolutionary concept in its own right, the rationale behind it is superb. That it falls in the ambit of one of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four Agenda and his desire to leave an enduring legacy simply means the president is sincere in his quest. Whether it succeeds or not is a different matter altogether.

This scheme targets to enroll secondary school students for medical cover in hospitals close to their institutions. The story will be quite different for students in the arid and semi-arid areas, where hospitals are a rarity. Documentaries have shown volunteer nurses hanging drips on tree branches while the patients contend with sleeping on the hard, dusty ground. There was the story of a volunteer assistant chief taking care of his people by doubling up as a nurse, and the only available medication was generic paracetamol. It is anybody’s guess how the new scheme will benefit students in these forgotten areas.