AfyaKE system shutdown: 65,000 patient records at centre of Kang’ata-Duale showdown
Murang'a County Governor Irungu Kang'ata.
Murang’a Governor Irungu Kang’ata has accused the national government of disrupting services in the county’s hospitals by shutting down the AfyaKE system, even as the Ministry of Health maintains that neither the developers nor the county government had applied for certification.
The shutdown has left patient records inaccessible and is crippling the processing of claims under the Social Health Authority (SHA).
Dr Kang’ata said the county had automated its hospitals using AfyaKE since 2023, but the system was switched off ahead of the October 30 deadline for the transition to the national government’s Tibabu system.
AfyaKE is a digital hospital management system that stores patients’ details and treatment histories. It also supports telemedicine, allowing doctors to consult patients in remote dispensaries through video calls.
“This automation has increased revenue from Sh80 million to Sh800 million per year. The county has used the extra money to expand medical services by building new dispensaries and expanding hospital services,” he said.
Dr Kang’ata cited developments at Murang’a Level 5 Hospital, Nyakianga Dispensary and Kirwara Hospitals, as well as new buildings at Kandara Hospital that are due to be launched soon, as some of the projects funded through the additional revenue.
He said the system had also helped the county maintain consistent stocks of medicines and introduced innovations such as telemedicine and the installation of solar power in health facilities.
AfyaKE was adopted from a national government system and enhanced by in-house software developers, according to the governor. Staff were trained to use it and it has accumulated records for approximately 65,000 patients since 2023.
Dr Kang’ata accused the Ministry of Health, the Digital Health Agency and SHA of refusing to certify AfyaKE as a digital system capable of exchanging health information, even as systems used by private hospitals had been certified and interconnected.
He said this was despite AfyaKE being a free government system and a promise by Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale, made in his presence, that the platform would be connected to SHA rather than shut down.
The governor described the move as malicious, politically motivated and an act of sabotage.
He warned that the shutdown would disrupt hospital services for days and leave critical patient data inaccessible, preventing doctors from retrieving medical histories and processing SHA claims.
“The switch-off was done without warning. We have lost patient data, our systems are down and services in our hospitals will be disrupted for days. This is a major setback,” he said.
The disruption, he added, also affects other public institutions that adopted the system from Murang’a including the Department of Defence and hospitals in Tharaka Nithi County.
The shutdown has also affected Kang’ataCare, the county’s universal health coverage programme, which serves more than 160,000 vulnerable residents across over 40,000 households, as well as its telemedicine department.
Health Chief Officer Eliud Maina said the county faced two difficult options of recovering the inaccessible data or reconstructing patient records from scratch.
“Without the government restoring AfyaKE, neither option looks possible. We cannot recover what we cannot access, and we cannot reconstruct thousands of patient files manually without errors that can cost lives, considering the automation journey began in 2023,” he said.
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Mr Maina warned that the disruption could have serious consequences for critically ill patients, including those in intensive care units, patients undergoing dialysis and mothers in maternity wards whose treatment depends on accurate medical records and continuous monitoring.
However, the Ministry of Health has denied shutting down AfyaKE disputing the governor’s account of what happened.
“To set the record straight, the Ministry has not switched off the AfyaKE system. The Ministry neither owns, controls, nor manages the system, nor does it have the source code,” ministry said in a statement dated October 15, 2026, and signed by Health CS Aden Duale.
The Ministry described AfyaKE as a private arrangement between the Murang’a County government and its developers.
It also denied that the Digital Health Agency had refused to certify the system, saying neither the developers nor the county government had applied for certification.
“The governor should therefore refrain from making misleading statements that could misinform the public and cause unnecessary concern among residents and healthcare stakeholders,” Mr Duale said.
In a sharp rejoinder, Mr Maina dismissed the Ministry’s response as dishonest, insisting that the system’s shutdown had disrupted hospital operations and left patient records inaccessible.
He accused the Ministry of attempting to distance itself from the system rather than addressing the problems facing the county’s hospitals.
Mr Maina challenged Mr Duale to explain how AfyaKE had obtained a government domain name ending in go.ke if, as the Ministry maintained, it had no ownership, control or management role in the platform.
“Let Mr Duale tell Kenyans how AfyaKE ended up with a government domain if it was never a government system. You cannot have a government domain and then claim you neither own, control nor manage it. That domain is reserved for government,” he said.
Mr Maina said he would label the Cabinet Secretary’s statement as fake if he had the authority to do so.
“If I had my way, I would stamp that press statement from Duale as fake. It is not factual. The facts on the ground are that our hospitals are down, patient data is inaccessible, Level 2 and 3 facilities have stopped offering services, and we cannot recover or reconstruct the data without the system being restored,” he said.
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