Prezzo Ruto's intervenes at Nairobi Hospital to ensure hustlers can seek treatment on SHA
Peter Kimani
By
Peter Kimani
| Mar 20, 2026
One of my favourite words, charlatans, because there are so many in our body politic, forcefully entered the presidential lexicon this week, if a little accented, delivered by Prezzo Bill Ruto. It was applied specifically to individuals that are reportedly messing up with the management of the Nairobi Hospital.
Let’s steer clear of the accusations and counter-accusations about who’s meddling with the hospital and their motivations. What I’m interested in is if the public-funded insurance, Social Health Authority (SHA) is accepted there.
In fact, I suspect the main reason for Prezzo Ruto’s intervention is that he wanted to ensure SHA is applied at the facility so that the so-called hustlers can access treatment there.
The last time I checked some well-established insurance firms had pulled out of the facility for reasons I wasn’t clear about, but then that’s a long time ago. They’ve possibly returned. Or maybe they’ve taken off again, especially after hearing former Deputy Riggy G make his serious claim that the facility was up for grabs.
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Even though I’m hesitant to wade into the controversy without the full facts that Riggy G probably possesses—I understand he’s got his own intelligence network, including supply of teargas that he occasionally explodes at public rallies to win public sympathy—he does make a good point that Prezzo Ruto should direct his energies to deal with the mess at the Kenyatta National Hospital. After all, his role as patron of the Nairobi Hospital is largely ceremonial.
In her latest report, the Auditor General reports that nearly Sh1 billion has been stolen from KNH by simply letting patients walk away with their bills unpaid. And the weakest link apparently, is security, which is being over-supplied at the Nairobi Hospital.
At the last check, the entire nation’s security apparatus, from the National Intelligence Service to the elite GSU Recce Squad that’s based in Ruiru had been deployed to hold down elderly medics in the parking area until they capitulate.
It is reported that the elderly medics were asked to sign along some dotted lines, but they responded by saying they were not “kubaf.” They not had gone to the medical school on falsified academic certificates, so they’d not sign anything they hadn’t read.