SCANDAL: SHA Blows Sh77 Million in Legal Fees to Recover Measly Sh13 Million as Taxpayers Foot Bill

In a display of staggering incompetence and financial recklessness, the Social Health Authority has been exposed for burning through a jaw-dropping Sh77 million in legal costs to chase down a paltry Sh13 million, leaving MPs furious and Kenyans questioning how their healthcare money is being squandered.

The bombshell revelations emerged Wednesday when SHA officials, led by embattled Chief Executive Dr. Mercy Mwangangi, were hauled before the Public Investments Committee at Parliament Buildings to answer for a litany of financial scandals that paint a damning picture of an institution drowning in mismanagement and waste.

The Auditor General’s report, covering the 2021–22 to 2023–24 financial years, has torn the lid off a cesspool of questionable expenditures, ghost payments, and brazen disregard for financial regulations that would make even the most hardened corruption watchers wince.

At the heart of the scandal is the mind-boggling legal fees fiasco. SHA racked up a colossal Sh247.8 million in legal costs, with a staggering Sh91.6 million paid out to recover cases worth a measly Sh13.9 million. That represents an overpayment of Sh77.6 million, money that could have treated thousands of sick Kenyans now languishing without care while lawyers feast on taxpayer cash.

“Where is the value for money when you pay Sh77 million to collect Sh13 million?” Navakholo MP Emmanuel Wangwe, who chairs the PIC committee, demanded as he skewered SHA officials over the unconscionable waste. The question hung in the air like an indictment of everything wrong with Kenya’s public institutions.

The financial carnage doesn’t stop there. SHA’s board members pocketed Sh5.83 million in sitting allowances without a shred of documentation to prove they even showed up for work. No attendance registers. No signed minutes. Just millions disappearing into pockets while Kenyans die waiting for treatment they can no longer afford.

“If you say the board was paid Sh5 million, this means many deserving Kenyans were denied an opportunity to get medical treatment,” Ndhiwa MP Martin Peters Owino thundered, his voice dripping with contempt for the callous disregard SHA has shown for struggling citizens whose lives depend on the very funds being looted.

The hits keep coming. Remember the infamous multi-storey car park project that ballooned from Sh909 million to a grotesque Sh3.97 billion? That’s a 337 percent cost escalation that reeks of kickbacks, inflated contracts, and the kind of theft that has become synonymous with government mega-projects. Despite MPs ordering the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate, the probe has stalled, with no progress report submitted and no one held accountable.

“There were multiple payments that inflated the car park budget by 37 percent,” Wangwe revealed, directing SHA to cough up all payment records for verification. But don’t hold your breath waiting for transparency from an institution that can’t even produce basic financial documentation.

Saboti MP Caleb Amisi, the committee’s vice chairperson, wasn’t buying SHA’s feeble attempts to blame Covid-19 for the financial chaos. “A tired excuse used by government institutions that have misused public funds,” he dismissed with cutting precision, calling out the lazy deflection tactic that has become the go-to defense for every scandal-ridden parasite feeding off public coffers.

Nominated MP Bishop Kosgei turned his guns on SHA’s finance department, blasting officials for stonewalling auditors and refusing to cooperate with basic accountability measures. “The Finance Director has let down the CEO and the entire institution by refusing to cooperate with audit queries,” he said, exposing the culture of impunity that has taken root at the Authority.

SHA CEO Dr Mercy Mwangangi takes oath before being questioned by MPs over unsupported board payments and irregular legal fees, October 22, 2025. /PARLIAMENT

Dr. Mwangangi, clearly on the back foot, tried to deflect blame onto the defunct National Health Insurance Fund, claiming SHA inherited most of its toxic records and liabilities. She promised reforms and transparency, the same hollow pledges Kenyans have heard a thousand times before from institutions caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

“We are committed to transparency and accountability. Significant reforms are ongoing to correct historical weaknesses,” Mwangangi offered weakly, her words sounding more like damage control than genuine contrition.

The committee wasn’t having it. MPs ordered SHA to produce missing documentation and prove they’re actually cooperating with EACC over the car park scandal before the next sitting. It’s a tall order for an institution that has demonstrated all the financial discipline of a drunk sailor on shore leave.

As ordinary Kenyans struggle to access basic healthcare under the collapsing SHA system, watching their premiums vanish into a black hole of incompetence and possible theft, these revelations confirm their worst fears. The very institution created to safeguard their health has become just another feeding trough for well-connected insiders, lawyers, and board members who treat public money like their personal ATM.

The question now is whether anyone will face consequences for this grotesque mismanagement, or whether SHA will join the long list of Kenyan institutions that stumble from scandal to scandal while taxpayers foot the bill and the sick continue suffering.