Kenya Commits KSh1.5 Billion ($11.6M) to Hospital Upgrades in Kisii and Nyamira

The National Government has set aside KSh1.5 billion, about $11.6 million at current exchange rates, for hospital projects in Kisii and Nyamira counties.

Principal Secretary for Medical Services Dr. Ouma Oluga announced the commitment during a visit to Kisii County, part of a wider push by the Ministry of Health to strengthen hospital infrastructure, maternal care and health financing across the two counties,the ministry said in a statement published on X on September 12,2026.

A new maternity hospital gets its equipment

In Kisii, the money is tied to a specific facility: the newly constructed Mother and Child Hospital.

The Ministry is working with the Kisii County Government to equip the building under the Biomedical Engineering Performance Services framework, a national arrangement in which private contractors supply, install and maintain medical equipment in public hospitals rather than counties buying and servicing machines on their own.

A hospital built but not equipped cannot admit patients, so this step determines when the facility actually opens its wards.

Beyond Kisii town, the Ministry says it is negotiating intergovernmental agreements with county governments to expand and equip health facilities more broadly across Kisii and Nyamira.

Kenya's counties run day to day healthcare delivery, while the national government funds and coordinates major infrastructure.

That division is why projects like this require sign off from both levels before work can start.

Why Dr. Oluga is pushing SHA registration

Dr. Oluga used the visit to press Kenyans to register with and contribute to the Social Health Authority (SHA), the state agency that has run Kenya's public health insurance since it replaced the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) on 1 October 2024 under the Social Health Insurance Act.

His argument was that a hospital, however well equipped, does not help a patient who cannot afford to walk through its doors. Sustainable financing, he said, is what stands between illness and care for Kenyans without money to pay upfront.

The Star reported that SHA had 32.3 million Kenyans registered as of August 18, 2026, a figure its CEO Mercy Mwangangi gave publicly.

That is more than double NHIF's peak enrolment of 16.9 million.

The same reporting put the number of facilities patients can access under the scheme at 10,713, up from 8,667.

Those numbers show the scheme expanding, but they sit alongside separate, well documented problems. Hospitals have reported delayed reimbursements from SHA, and some have turned away SHA patients as a result.

A Ministry of Health audit earlier this year also found the scheme lost roughly KES 11 billion to fraudulent claims between October 2024 and April 2025.

Dr. Oluga's appeal for more Kenyans to register comes against that backdrop, a fund still working through its own growing pains.

What the KSh1.5 billion is meant to achieve

Dr. Oluga framed the Kisii and Nyamira spending as part of the Ministry's broader Universal Health Coverage agenda, the government's long standing goal of getting quality healthcare to every Kenyan without financial hardship attached.

He said the Ministry remains focused on directing the resources it has toward that goal rather than waiting on new funding streams.