Major attention will shift to the Social Health Authority (SHA) today as the World Health Expo Nairobi 2026 kicks off at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre.

The three-day meeting from September 16 to 18 will bring together over 5,500 healthcare stakeholders to discuss new SHA tariffs and contracting guidelines.

According to reports by http://Kenyans.co.ke and http://Tuko.co.ke published on September 14, SHA has announced that the new contracting cycle will start on October 1, 2026 and run until June 30, 2029. However, all hospitals are expected to meet seven new requirements through the Centralised Digital Platform.

This summit comes at a time when SHA is facing serious questions and allegations concerning transparency of public funds.

According to a DCI investigation report dated April 2, 2026 and reported by Citizen Digital on September 14, at least 51 health facilities in Mandera County have been flagged and suspended. Eight of them have been approved for prosecution after unlawfully receiving KSh 30.7 million from SHA.

The facilities named by Citizen Digital are Danaba Care Hospital, Kamsihawa Medical Centre, Kaafi Nursing Home, Mama Nerbeel Nursing Home, Alati Nursing Home, Julun Nursing Home, Adfaal Kids Care Medical Centre and Dimtu Nursing Home Limited. All are from Mandera.

At the same time, other cases highlighted by Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale include Nabuala Hospital in Bungoma, which is accused of submitting multiple caesarean sections on same patient within days, and Kotiende Medical Centre in Homa Bay accused of fake records.

In total, according to Citizen Digital, 1,118 facilities have been closed, with 30 of them already set to be prosecuted. From the same report, a total of 1,188 fraud files are said to have been already submitted to the DCI.

However, despite the fraud purge, reports from the official SHA data released on September 14 and published by http://Kenyans.co.ke affirm that SHA has already cleared billions. From the report, the health cover is said to have already cleared KSh 27.91 billion, which is 80 percent of claims from 8,349 facilities. Meanwhile, KSh 3.43 billion was reportedly rejected for failing to meet the requirements.

On the same note, reports on the county breakdown on the allocations shows that Nakuru received KSh 1.93B, Nairobi KSh 1.57B while Homa Bay received a total of KSh 1.54B. From the same report, Tana River recorded the highest settlement rate which was 87 percent.

Meanwhile, Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale, in a statement on September 15 as reported by Citizen Digital, said that KSh 5.1B more is still under probe, with KSh 12.7B already rejected as fraudulent.

Earlier, a report by The Auditor General Nancy Gathungu, which was also covered by Citizen Digital on September 14, revealed that KSh 104.8B was lost into a SHA system that is neither owned nor controlled by the state.

In the meantime, all eyes will be on KICC today as the summit begins. However, one question remains at the centre of public debate, is SHA really a better upgrade of the previous NHIF cover? Share your thoughts in the comments section.