Gachagua claims Sh104bn tender only motivation for SHIF
Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua during an interview at his Karen home on December 1, 2024.
What you need to know:
- President Ruto’s government has defended the new health care programme, noting that the defunct NHIF was riddled with corruption that only benefited cartels and that the reforms will help deliver affordable and quality universal health care.
- Even so, in his latest revelations, the former deputy president said he fell out with his boss President Ruto because he was against unpopular State policies such as high taxes and Adani-like deals.
Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua now claims that the only motivation for the implementation of the new healthcare programme to replace the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) is the Sh104 billion information system.
In an interview with Inooro TV on Sunday, Mr Gachagua claimed the lucrative tender is the only interest in the rollout of the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) and Social Health Authority (SHA).
"NHIF only needed Sh800 million infrastructural upgrade but you went for the costly option to create a kitty that is now up for grabs,” alleged Mr Gachagua who was impeached in October and subsequently removed from office as deputy president.
President Ruto’s government has defended the new health care programme, noting that the defunct NHIF was riddled with corruption that only benefited cartels and that the reforms will help deliver affordable and quality universal health care.
Even so, in his latest revelations, the former deputy president said he fell out with his boss President Ruto because he was against unpopular State policies such as high taxes and Adani-like deals.
Mr Gachagua also claimed that he became a marked man after refusing to endorse a culture of lies in the presidency.
He claimed he refused to participate in the launch of projects that had no budgets allocated for their implementation.
"The president wanted me to help him campaign for the 2027 General Election. He wanted me to be accompanying him to launch development projects even when there was no budget to fund them. I refused," Mr Gachagua claimed.
Mr Gachagua claimed Kenyans are aware of many projects that the president launched only for the contractors and machinery to leave the sites immediately after the last of the presidential entourage left.
Impeachment politics
While revisiting his impeachment, Mr Gachagua said he is yet to "breakdown as was intended against me".
He ridiculed the process and the desired endgame.
"They thought impeachment would break me. No way. I have seen life and death in my 59 years of living...I am okay, this is a passing cloud and I am coming back," he said.
Mr Gachagua vowed to continue telling Kenyans the truth about President Ruto’s government.
"I am not a yes man to keep quiet when things are going bad...I don't buy fear," he said.
The former deputy president claimed the president is forcing unpopular policies like the Housing Levy, the new university funding model, which he termed a tragedy for students and the mandatory livestock vaccination drive.
"Those who come out to question those policies are being dismissed by the president as stupid, uneducated and demon-possessed...Mr President, just tolerate your people, listen to them and don't be quick to anger to the extent of insulting and belittling them," he said.
He questioned why the president publicly disowns the existence of abductions even with overwhelming evidence of the actions, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and persecution of government critics.
