Kenyan courts may have saved the exchequer and Kenyan taxpayers a hefty $800,280,000 (Ksh104 billion) that was destined to personal bank accounts. Under President Willima Ruto, thieving is a way of life in Kenya today. Suspects in this white collar heist are the usual suspects: residents of the State House – the seat of Kenyan government.

In the elaborate scheme to fleece the taxpayer of more than $800,280,000, President Ruto, chief architect of government-sanctioned cybercrime Davis Chirchir, the president’s chief economic advisor, Prof David Ndii and his wife, mobile service provider Safaricom have been identified in court documents and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States of America as the key movers in the heist that would have deprived the vulnerable population of affordable access medical services.

Had Adani not been indicted in the US, the monumental theft that was in the making was going to make the Goldenberg and Eurobond scandals look like child’s play. Kenya is not yet out of the woods, though. After all, President Ruto revealed during his State of the Nation Address that the government was already on the lookout for similar public-private partnership – without elaborating. It is to assume that Adani Season II is already in the making.

Adani and his group of companies, it turns out, may have been just fronts to skim the economy of financial resources as the State House mandarins plot to retain power in the 2027 elections.

The aim of changing from National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) to the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) was all about the Ksh104 billion ($800,280,000) that will be paid to the consortium mandated to build the software platform. Without SHIF or is it Social Health Authority (SHA), there would have been no need to spend obnoxious amount of members’ money on a simple ERP software. The proponents of SHIF have tried to give reasons for the changeover but none makes sense. 

The consortium has three companies, one which is the major shareholder is associated with the notorious Gautam Adani, the other is Safaricom and the third is a company associated with David Ndii’s wife. Ksh104 billion is a lot of money; it is close to one billion America dollars. Although the Ksh104 billion with be paid over 10 year period through some PPP arrangement, it is still obnoxious amount of money moving from public coffers to private individual pockets.  

The shares in this consortium are as follows when rounded off, the company associated with Adani controls 60 per cent, Safaricom and David Ndii-associated company 20 per cent each. Going by the shares, Adani would have received Ksh6 billion ($46,170,000) and the other Ksh2 billion ($15,390,000) annually. From these figures, David Ndii and his wife will be making a cool Ksh2 billion annually from your SHIF contribution. Adani from the information available could be a front for somebody and this somebody (most likely President William Ruto and his henchmen) will be making a cool Ksh6 billion annually for the next 10 years.

The company associated with Adani was formed in July this year. The one associated with David Ndii was formed early last year. Safaricom on its part is a telecom and not a software development company and its role in this deal remains unclear. All the three companies are novices in software development and in a competitive bidding, none could have won the tender. What will happen is that the consortium will hire programmers from India, pay them at market rate and end up with a huge profit.

As a practising software developer, I can say without fear of contradiction that the software that the members of SHIF will fork out Ksh104 billion for is worth Ksh1 billion on the higher side and Ksh500 million (3,847,500) on the lower scale. This Ksh104 billion software is in the actual sense a normal Enterprise Resource Planner aka ERP, just like other ERP used in many offices. This kind of software can be developed by a team of say, 10 local programmers in six months.

NHIF had a software that was working fairly well and it beats logic why this software was not upgraded to cater for the new changes brought about by SHIF. Any serious organisation that cares about its client takes great care of clients’ data as data ensures continuity. Does SHIF give a hoot about the members it has inherited going by the way it is conducting its business? I highly doubt.

The aim of this animal called SHIF is an open secret – scarcely out of sight of ordinary people, although Kenyans are not paying attention to details.

The former NHIF used to collect Ksh300 billion annually and from this amount, 5 per cent was assigned to NHIF operations cost. The 5 per cent of 300 amounts to Ksh15 billion and this is the money NHIF used to pay salaries, transport, rent, etc. Now with SHIF, Ksh10 billion will go the consortium leaving SHIF with only Ksh5 billion for operations. In case of the contribution hitting Ksh400 billion – which it is not easy – the 5 per cent will be Ksh20 billion and with Adani deductions, will not be enough for operation costs.

Kenya has world class programmers who can develop the said software with minimum time and cost. This software will be hosted in the cloud and there will be no need of buying expensive servers. However, be sure its proponents will be lying about expensive hardware that will need to be bought.  Why members of NHIF that has now be forcefully be taken SHIF have to pay a 100 times for an ERP software does not make sense to most of us.

With the market price of this software being Ksh1 billion, the heist will be on the Ksh103 billion top-up. The sad and cruel bit is that, the Ksh103 billion could be used for patients’ treatment and expansion of medical facilities. People will suffer if paid, others will die, just for a few men and women to make a tidy sum of Ksh103 billion.

• A Tell report / By Mwai Wachira-Software Developer