Kenya’s health system is under threat—not from disease, but from within. A new fraud scandal is rocking the Social Health Authority (SHA), exposing how rogue doctors and medical facilities are milking millions through stolen or shared pre-authorization codes.
Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale has blown the whistle on this disturbing practice, where surgeries are faked, codes are misused, and public trust is betrayed.
At the heart of it is a shocking case of a doctor supposedly performing ten surgeries daily, 600 kilometers away from his workplace. The scandal, now under official investigation, shows just how deep the rot goes.
When CS Aden Duale took the podium at the 9th Annual Delegates Conference of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists, and Dentists Union (KMPDU) in Mombasa, his message was clear—medical fraud must end.
What shocked many was the real-life example he shared: a doctor, completely unaware, was accused of conducting over ten surgeries daily at a facility he had never stepped foot in.
This facility, located 600 kilometers away, had been submitting claims under the doctor’s name using his SHA pre-authorization code.
Pre-authorization codes are meant to streamline the approval process for medical procedures under SHA. Instead, they’ve become tools of fraud.
“This doctor had no idea how his code was being used,” Duale said. “When asked, he was as shocked as anyone. That’s when we knew the system is under attack from within.”
Hospitals and clinics have found a loophole. By accessing or stealing a legitimate doctor’s pre-authorization code, they can fake surgeries and other expensive procedures, then submit claims to SHA for reimbursement.
The doctor gets a cut or remains unaware altogether. Either way, taxpayer money meant for life-saving healthcare is being looted. And it’s not just one case.
The ministry is currently investigating a wider network of doctors and facilities potentially involved in this scheme. Duale promised swift and decisive action. “We will weed them out,” he said. “This is not negotiable. SHA fraud is a crime against Kenyans.”
In some cases, doctors willingly share their pre-authorization codes in exchange for kickbacks. Clinics then claim the doctor performed surgeries or administered treatments that never happened.
Since the claims are linked to a licensed and trusted medic, they pass through SHA’s system without red flags—at least at first. By the time anyone notices, the money is gone. This kind of fraud is difficult to track unless an audit or whistleblower triggers a closer look.
In one instance, a review showed the same doctor was supposedly performing surgeries at two different locations—hundreds of kilometers apart—on the same day. When confronted, the doctor admitted to giving out his code to a friend who ran a private clinic.
While SHA’s digital systems are meant to prevent such abuse, insiders say the enforcement is still weak, making it easy for bad actors to take advantage.
Hospitals Inflate Procedures
Hospitals also play a major role in SHA fraud. Once a doctor’s code is in their hands, they inflate numbers, reporting that 20 patients received surgeries when only two did. Sometimes, they claim high-cost procedures like C-sections or orthopedic surgeries that never took place.
A single fraudulent claim can be worth hundreds of thousands of shillings. Multiply that by weeks or months, and it becomes a million-shilling scam per facility.
These hospitals rely on volume to avoid detection. And with poor cross-checking mechanisms at SHA, many get away with it.
What’s at Stake and What Must Be Done
This kind of fraud does more than steal money. It erodes public trust in a healthcare system already struggling to deliver. When funds are siphoned off through fake claims, real patients suffer. Medication runs out. Facilities go understaffed. And the dream of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) becomes harder to achieve.
Civil servants, including healthcare workers themselves, are now being asked to contribute to SHA through deductions at the source. Yet they, too, fall victim when the system is exploited. As Duale said, “You cannot block your own workers from the scheme and still expect it to succeed.”
