The story of Nyandiwa Dispensary in Homa Bay County exposes glaring failures at the Social Health Authority (SHA) and raises hard questions about the leadership of Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale and SHA CEO Mercy Mwangangi.
A facility that has been abandoned for more than ten years, with no staff, medicine, or equipment, somehow appeared in official records as active and even received Sh20 million this August.
When the Daily Nation visited the dispensary, it was nothing more than a ghostly building with peeling paint, rusting blue doors, and empty rooms visible through glass windows.
Despite its closure, Nyandiwa Dispensary is listed as operational in Ministry of Health records and even licensed on SHA’s own website under permit GK-013891.
Shockingly, the money was processed as though patients were treated there, yet residents of Obisa, Kamuma, Omuga, and Misambi have to walk long distances to seek medical care in Rangwe or Oyugis.
A young man told the Daily Nation that he and his friends were recently paid to clear the compound, leading locals to think the hospital was finally reopening.
Aden Duale has downplayed the issue, insisting it was human error. He claimed the money was intended for Nyandiwa Level Four Hospital, which supposedly retained the dispensary’s old bank account details during transition.
But the fact remains that an inactive dispensary was listed as receiving millions while functioning hospitals like Gongo in Homa Bay were denied their rightful funds.
Even Dr Amos Dullo, SHA’s own focal person in Homa Bay, admitted the dispensary has never been empanelled by SHA and that the payments were wrongly made.
Residents and health workers are left stunned, with some calling the situation outright theft disguised as error.
Meanwhile, in August, Jumuia Hospital in Nairobi received Sh87 million, which is more than Kenyatta National Hospital and Kenyatta University Teaching and Referral Hospital combined. Such lopsided allocations and unexplained transfers expose a deep rot in SHA systems.
Duale and Mwangangi cannot dismiss this as mere clerical confusion. When ghost facilities swallow millions and struggling hospitals go without, it reflects not error but failed leadership. The truth is that Kenyans continue to pay the price for negligence at the very top.
