SHA announces 65 job vacancies as 225 former NHIF staff remain in limbo

The Social Health Authority (SHA) has advertised 65 high-level job openings even as 225 former National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) staff remain without placement after being seconded to the Public Service Commission (PSC).

The recruitment drive, made public on Tuesday through local newspapers, targets experienced professionals to fill senior management positions in efforts to boost SHA’s operational effectiveness and meet its mandate under the Social Health Insurance Act, 2023.

The new staff will support the management of the Social Health Insurance Fund, the Primary Healthcare Fund, and the Emergency, Chronic, and Critical Illness Fund.

In the notice, SHA urged qualified individuals to apply online or submit their applications physically to its headquarters on Ragati Road, Nairobi, by August 19, 2025.

Applications must include a curriculum vitae, academic and professional credentials, a cover letter highlighting suitability for the role, and contact details of three referees.

All candidates are also expected to meet Chapter Six requirements of the Constitution, including valid clearances from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, Kenya Revenue Authority, HELB, EACC, and a Credit Reference Bureau.

The announcement comes even as uncertainty continues for 225 of the 247 former NHIF staff who were issued with deployment letters to PSC by SHA Chief Executive Officer Mercy Mwangangi on June 9.

These employees, who have been serving at SHA since its formation last year, were instructed to report to PSC for redeployment.

However, the PSC informed them to stay put as no available slots had been identified. Since then, only 22 of the 247 have been placed, mainly in the Ministry of Information, Communications and Telecommunications and at the National Treasury, while the rest remain at home but continue to receive their monthly pay.

Last week, Mwangangi and Health Cabinet Secretary Adan Duale met the affected workers and later issued a press statement. In that meeting, Dr Mwangangi assured staff that those with deployment letters would continue earning the same salary packages. “The 247 who received letters will retain their current perks.”

Duale supported this, saying, “None will lose their job.”

Their assurances followed a ruling by the Employment and Labour Relations Court directing that any NHIF staff not absorbed by SHA but sent to the wider public service would retain their last NHIF salary, personal to self, until they exit the service by lawful means such as retirement or resignation.

The court also ordered that all letters previously issued to such staff be amended to reflect the salary protection clause.

“The issue whether the staff of NHIF competitively recruited for absorption into the service of SHA should retain their NHIF salaries, personal to self-consequential to recruitment for appointment by SHA should be submitted for determination by the court,” the ruling stated.

Despite the court’s directive and public assurances, the deployment letters issued to the 247 staff have not been withdrawn or revised, leaving hundreds in a state of prolonged waiting and frustration.