UHC project turned into a looters’ paradise as frontline workers continue to suffer

Rogue officials from the Ministry of Health and the National Treasury are suspected to have orchestrated the clandestine financial embezzlement scam of taxpayers’ money disguised as payments for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) employees totaling to 3,000 ghost workers, The Informer Media Group can authoritatively reveal.

This comes even as the crisis in the healthcare sector deepens with the government acknowledging that about 3,000 workers hired under the UHC program cannot be accounted for.

Council of Governors (CoG) chairman for Health Committee Muthomi Njuki who is also the Tharaka Nithi governor blew the lid off through shocking revelation amid an ongoing strike by workers under the scheme who are demanding better terms of service.

“Our records show that we do not have 8,700 workers. There are close to 3,000 ghost workers who are being paid by the national government who are not in our payroll,” said Njuki.

However, when contacted by The Informer Media Group through mail and short text messages and Whatsapp platform, Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale did not respond to our queries.

According to impeccable sources, cartels at Afya House and the National Treasury are said to be the masterminds of the brazen heist of taxpayers’ money drawn as payments for UHC ghost workers.

However, by the time of going to broadcast, Duale had not commented on why the ministry of health has not shared the database of UHC staff domiciled in each of the county governments with the respective county leadership for authentication and verification processes on the true number, identity and amounts paid to the supposed UHC employees.

Further, besides claims that MoH and National Treasury rogue officials are the mastermind of the brazen heist scam, Duale’s office remains on the spotlight on the measures taken to clean up the discrepancy and ensure value for taxpayers’ money including recovery measures of the embezzled funds.

The ghost employees reportedly gobble up a cumulative monthly paycheck of Sh1.5million, translating to close to Sh20million a year.

“Interviews were conducted at county levels, not just in Tharaka Nithi but across the country. However, the payroll is managed nationally, and those in charge do not verify whether an individual is still actively working,” added Njuki.

In an earlier rejoinder to the scandal, Duale acknowledged the payroll irregularities, admitting that the ministry has been paying ghost workers under the UHC scheme since the onset of the covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

Duale also announced a comprehensive verification exercise scheduled for the second week of June beginning next week.

However, the CS did not give figures, saying an audit will be carried out countrywide to unearth the actual numbers.

This comes as UHC workers have been on strike for more than three months demanding better pay, permanent contracts, pension schemes and better working conditions.

“It is true we have been paying salaries unknowingly to ghost workers who were recruited some five years ago in 2020. Some have left, some are working for the counties. The numbers given by the county governments and the numbers we found at Afya House are not tallying,” said Duale.

The CS subsequently announced a head count for health workers in the counties in a bid to establish actual figures of the employees in the sector.

“We shall visit every county and do a head count. we want to know if we have 5,000 UHC workers or we have 8,000,” stated Duale.

Duale also insisted that the government will not bear the burden of any money lost through the scandal, but individuals who were in charge will have to shoulder the loss.

“The men and women who were at Afya House at that time will pay (for the loss). We shall not pay,” he stressed.

A letter dated May 14, 2025, signed by Medical Services Principal Secretary Dr. Ouma Oluga and addressed to the Council of Governors acknowledges the discrepancies in the payroll records.

But health workers’ representatives dismissed the government’s claim of existence of ghost employees, saying no proof has been provided.

However, the Medical Services PS accuses some counties of complicating the situation by inflating the figures, showing there are more medics than the actual numbers.

“When they submit that list the way it is, we do not submit it to the treasury and therefore the treasury cannot release the funds,” said Oluga.

With the alarming revelations around the scam bedeviling staff hiring in the country’s healthcare system, a massive money-minting scheme lies in prowl under the UHC scheme and probably other programs.

Insider sources confirmed that while some UHC staff have exited the profession, moved abroad, or even died, their names remain active on the payroll.

Millions of shillings, meant to pay county frontline health workers, may have been siphoned by shadowy cartels operating within the ministry.

Documents from the Ministry of Health reveal alarming discrepancies between the ministry’s payroll records and the Council of Governors’ register of UHC workers.

A payroll summary and county-specific staff lists further raise questions. in some counties, up to 34 names could not be accounted for.

With an average monthly salary of Sh50,000 per worker, this translates to approximately Sh1.5million potentially being lost every month in a single county, an annual loss of Sh20million.

This circus only goes to add to the pain of suffering Kenyans who cannot access quality healthcare services in the country’s public health institutions.

A recent heartrending case in point is that of a family in Gatundu North, Kiambu county which lost their 11-month baby as he could not get treatment at the local Igegania Level 4 Hospital as a result of a crippling strike by medics in the county.

The infant, James Muiruri, died on Tuesday last week while in his grandfather’s arms as the family desperately sought help at the facility which has been hit hard by the industrial action.