'It's immoral and inhumane': Kang'ata says Duale ordered Murang'a health digital system be switched off

Kang’ata claimed the CS issued instructions to switch off the platform, which he said had been used to manage health services in the county for several years.

Murang'a Governor Irungu Kang'ata speaks during an interview on Citizen TV's JKLive on November 4, 2026. Photo/Courtesy

Murang’a Governor Irungu Kang’ata has accused Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale of ordering the shutdown of the county’s AfyaKE digital health system, alleging that the move disrupted medical services and left thousands of patients without access to telemedicine.

Speaking during an interview on Citizen TV's JKLive, Kang’ata claimed the CS issued instructions to switch off the platform, which he said had been used to manage health services in the county for several years.

“Duale knows, together with the PS. They gave the instructions to switch off the system. By the way, it was such an immoral thing, very inhumane,” Kang’ata said.

He recounted that the shutdown caught healthcare workers in the middle of treating patients, with some undergoing procedures when doctors discovered they could no longer access the system.

“Imagine patients that day were being treated, others were on surgical beds, doctors went to use the system and found it was off,” he added.

The governor further claimed that the disruption forced the county to shut down its telemedicine unit, which he said served nearly 30,000 elderly patients.

He added that the county had employed close to 20 clinicians to provide telemedicine services, alongside 35 other clinicians working in its telemedicine centres.

Kang’ata accused the Ministry of failing to consider the impact of the shutdown on patients and healthcare workers, saying some young clinicians had been left without work.

The governor also questioned the push for counties to adopt a privately owned health management system, arguing that public funds would be better spent on medicines and other medical supplies than on paying private developers.

“Why force counties to get a private system where we shall be paying a private person using public funds? That money can be used to buy medicine, hospital commodities. It's immoral on Duale to force counties into a private system when counties have the capabilities to come up with free publicly owned systems,” he said.

Kang’ata maintained that the county had proposed integrating AfyaKE with the national TaifaCare platform instead of shutting it down, claiming Duale had publicly promised to facilitate the connection but failed to honour the commitment.

He also defended AfyaKE against the national system, arguing that it had superior capabilities, particularly in telemedicine and teleradiology.

“This is an inferior product. Mainly it doesn't have teleradiology, telemedicine. Theirs is a standard or template system, but ours had taken us four years to retweak it up to where it was,” he noted.

Kang’ata further claimed that patients who had received treatment in Murang’a over the previous four years could no longer access their medical records, alleging that the AfyaKE system had not backed up the data.

He said the county had not anticipated that access to the records would be withdrawn, adding that the loss could affect continuity of care for patients seeking treatment.

Kang’ata said Duale had previously indicated that the system would be switched off but questioned why the county had not been given sufficient time to transition.

The dispute over AfyaKE follows an earlier communication by CS Duale who dismissed claims of issuing instructions to shut down the health system.

Duale described AfyaKE as a private arrangement between the Murang’a County Government and its developers.

“There were three counties that were using a system that did not belong to the Ministry of Health. And I'll say today that system belonged to the National Intelligence Service under President Uhuru's government, Makueni, Tharaka Nithi, and Murang’a," Duale said in an interview on Citizen TV’s Sunday Live on October 15, 2026.

"And we sat with those other governors, and they all transitioned to the National Digital Health Integration System under the DHA."