MPs and the National Police Service (NPS) are at loggerheads over whether insurance billions for police officers should be reduced to clear Sh833 million owed to a contractor who constructed the police hospital in Nairobi’s Mbagathi area that continues to remain idle.
The members of the Administration and Internal Security Committee of the National Assembly are concerned that the Sh1.23 billion police hospital, completed two years ago but cannot be handed to the NPS, risks becoming a white elephant unless the debt is cleared.
To ensure the hospital serves the purpose it was meant for, the MPs led by the committee chairperson Mr Gabriel Tongoyo (Narok West) want funds sourced from the insurance kitty “as soon as practicable” to clear the hospital’s pending bill.
However, Ms Bernice Lemedeket, NPS secretary, administration and accounting officer, warns that touching the police insurance allocation will expose the government to unnecessary breach of contract proceedings.
But despite Ms Lemedeket’s opposition, the committee members gave a strong position over why it is necessary to slash the Sh19.52 billion allocated for the police insurance cover for the 2025/26 financial year, to settle the pending bill.
The committee noted that it will be imprudent for the 150-bed capacity hospital completed two years ago, fully equipped and staffed, to remain idle as the government continues to incur billions on expensive medical covers for the police officers admitted in private facilities.
“We are seeing that you have funds allocated for police insurance yet you have nothing towards clearing the hospital’s pending bill,” Mr Tongoyo challenged Ms Lemedeket.
Ms Lemedeket, in the company of Inspector-General of Police Douglas Kanja, had appeared before the committee to defend the NPS budget for the 2025/26 financial year.
The hospital, a Level Four facility, constructed under the supervision of Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) personnel, was completed in the 2022/23 financial year.
It would later be fully equipped and staff recruited but cannot be handed over to the NPS unless it clears the balance for which only Sh400 million of the contract sum was paid.
Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu has since flagged the hospital’s Sh833.63 million pending bill, in the audited accounts of NPS for the 2023/24 financial year.
The facility was designed to provide critical and specialized medical healthcare services to NPS officers across the country, especially those on the frontline, and their families in order to improve the welfare and well-being of the uniformed officers while saving the government the cost of expensive medical covers in private facilities.
Mr Tongoyo and Saku MP Dido Rasso, the committee Vice Chairperson, argued that admitting the police officers in expensive private hospitals yet they have a hospital of their own, is not prudent use of “the limited” public resources.
“Why not use the insurance funds to clear the hospital bill? The hospital is now becoming a white elephant,” said Mr Tongoyo adding; “despite its completion, the police are not getting the services they need from the facility.”
“I wish we could get money elsewhere. We risk breaching the contract,” said Ms Lemedeket adding; “it will interfere with service delivery.”
NPS has already awarded a Sh8.7 billion contract to APA and Joint Venture for the provision of police insurance cover for the period April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026.
What took the MPs aback is the revelations by Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu that the contracted insurance companies are not paying claims to the police officers injured while in the line of duty or the families of the fallen officers.
This is despite the government releasing the insurance premium amounts to finance the police cover, which includes paying the claims.
Ms Lemedeket’s admission that Sh200 million has been allocated in the next financial year to pay medical staff at the hospital “for doing nothing yet it is not ready to clear its debts” further angered the committee members.
“We need an explanation why we have billions spent on police insurance cover yet there is no allocation towards clearing of the pending bill that has prevented NPS from taking over the hospital,” said Mr Rasso adding; “or maybe there are things we don’t know?”
The Saku MP went on to lecture IG Kanja and Ms Lemedeket how “this hospital is very critical to us as a country and to our officers on the frontline.”
“This is a top referral facility for the police. Paying the workers in the hospital for doing nothing is a matter the Auditor-General should easily pick as an audit query,” the Saku MP.
Teso North MP Oku Kaunya, the former Administration Police Training College deputy commander, noted that handing over the hospital to NPS is long overdue.
“We must get funds from the insurance allocation to clear the hospital’s pending bill. Otherwise, we will continue to lose a lot of money in expensive medical insurance covers if the hospital remains unused by the officers,” said Mr Kaunya.
The MPs spoke with the Auditor-General flagging irregularities in the administration of the Sh8.7 billion medical insurance contract that was awarded to NHIF during the 2023 period.
The irregularities include the nonpayment of claims by insurers despite the government releasing the funds.
The 2023 contract would later be extended for a further three months to March 31, 2024 at an additional premium of Sh2.2 billion, increasing the cover for the police during the period to Sh10.9 billion.
Also questioned by Ms Gathungu, is the litany of abuses of public funds at the NPS involving the Sh6.3 billion insurance cover for the provision of Group Life Cover, Work Injury Benefits (Wiba) and Group Personal Accident Cover (GPA) for the police officers.
Of the premium amount, Sh5.1 billion covered the officers from January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023.
The contract would later be extended for a further three months to March 31, 2024 at a premium of Sh1.3 billion.
“However, review of insurance records revealed anomalies,” the audit says, an indication that the principal members and their beneficiaries may have gotten a raw deal.
Ms Gathungu notes that a review of insurance records revealed irregularities that include unpaid claims relating to Group Life benefits, injury GPA and Wiba claims.
This is despite the contract providing that where a member is out of work as a result of an injury or illness, “such members shall be entitled to compensation for loss of gross salary up to a maximum period of two years.”
The audit shows that a review on insurance records revealed that as at the time of the audit, the insurer had not settled 262 unpaid GPA claims despite having been notified.
Clause 2.3.1 of the contract provides that upon the death of a member, the member’s declared next of kin shall be paid a lump sum compensation equivalent to five years annual basic salary.
“As at the time of the audit, the insurer had not paid 21 claims worth Sh43.5 million in respect of group life sum assured,” the audit states adding; “this was contrary to the contract terms which states that claims shall be paid within five days after notification and provision of all documents.”
The contract also provides that temporary disablement shall be compensated through a periodical payment equivalent to the member’s salary.
“Periodical payments shall be made for as long as the temporary disablement continues but not for a period that exceeds 12 months,” the contract reads.
But according to the Auditor-General, a review on insurance records revealed that as at the time of the audit, the insurer had not settled 509 Wiba claims and two Wiba deaths.
This is against the contract provisions, which state that death or total disablement under Wiba or as a result of occupational accident shall be compensated at a rate of 8 years gross salary of the beneficiary.
