Ruto’s health ministry kills Murang’a’s digital hospitals

A court battle over a switched-off digital health platform in Murang’a has exposed the fault lines of Kenya’s pre-election politics — and raised uncomfortable questions about who really controls the country’s health infrastructure

By David Kimani

Murang’a County filed papers in the High Court this week seeking urgent orders to restore a digital health platform serving more than 176 public health facilities, alleging that its abrupt shutdown on 14 October endangered thousands of patients and disrupted healthcare operations across one of Kenya’s most politically consequential counties — in a case that is as much about the 2027 general election as it is about medicine.

The platform at the centre of the dispute is Afya.KE, a health information management system that Murang’a County says it has used for more than three years to manage patient records, coordinate clinical services and process Social Health Authority claims. According to an affidavit filed by County Secretary Dr Newton Mwangi, the system was switched off without a functional replacement being provided, blocking access to patient records across all affected facilities and cutting off more than 25,000 patients who rely on telemedicine services for the management of chronic conditions including diabetes, hypertension and mental health disorders. Between January and October this year, the platform recorded 76,185 consultations. County officials say interruption to drug refill services alone could be life-threatening.

Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale has flatly denied any responsibility. The Ministry of Health says it did not shut down Afya.KE, does not own or control it, does not possess its source code and regards it as a private arrangement between Murang’a County and the system’s developers. The Ministry has also noted that neither the county nor the developers applied for certification from the Digital Health Agency, a requirement under the national digital health framework. If the Ministry’s position holds in court, the shutdown becomes a county-level contractual failure, not a national government decision.

Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale and Governor Irungu Kang’ata.

Governor Irungu Kang’ata disputes every word of that. He has stated publicly that Duale personally assured him Afya.KE would be integrated with the national Social Health Authority system rather than decommissioned. The governor further argues that the platform operates on a government dot-go-ke domain and is used by other public institutions and government agencies — a detail that directly challenges the Ministry’s insistence that this is a purely private arrangement. That question of ownership is now before the court and is likely to determine how far responsibility for the shutdown travels up the chain of command.

What makes this legal dispute so politically charged is the moment at which it is happening and the man pursuing it. Kang’ata is no longer a UDA governor. He quit President William Ruto’s ruling party in May, formally joined Rigathi Gachagua’s Democracy for the Citizens Party in July, and is now one of the most prominent elected leaders aligned with the opposition ahead of August 2027. His departure from UDA — the first by a sitting Mt Kenya governor — triggered a cascade. Nyandarua Governor Kiarie Badilisha followed within days. DCP’s landslide in the Ol Kalou parliamentary by-election in July, where it crushed UDA by more than 29,000 votes, confirmed what the defections had suggested: the mountain is moving.

In that context, a court case that places Kang’ata as the protector of his county’s healthcare system against a national government he has publicly abandoned is not simply a legal matter. It is a political narrative in its most useful form — one with patients, medical records and telemedicine users as its human face. The Ministry of Health, already under significant scrutiny after Duale was found in contempt of court in June over the construction of a US-backed Ebola quarantine facility in Nanyuki — a ruling that prompted a personal court appearance and a formal apology to avoid a custodial sentence — now faces a second front in the courts, this time over allegations that its national health digitisation drive has come at the cost of patient safety.

The Ministry’s troubles matter beyond Duale personally. The transition from county-level health information systems to the national HMIS and Taifa Care ecosystem was always going to produce friction. Kenya’s devolved healthcare system places service delivery responsibility with county governments while the national government controls policy, standards and increasingly the digital backbone. When that transition produces a blackout — whatever its cause — it is the county governor who answers for empty medicine cabinets and inaccessible patient files, not the Cabinet Secretary in Nairobi. Kang’ata understands this. He has filed the case, named the parties and put the evidence in the public record.

Whether the court ultimately finds that the Ministry caused or contributed to the shutdown, or whether it concludes that Murang’a’s contractual arrangements with Afya.KE’s developers were simply inadequate for the national transition, remains to be seen. The county wants the system restored, patient data preserved, healthcare services protected and further disruption prevented during the transition period. Those are entirely reasonable requests, and a court is now the body that must evaluate the sworn affidavits behind them.

What is already clear is that this case has reshaped the political weather in Murang’a and beyond. A governor who left the ruling coalition on grounds of principle now has a court filing that frames the national government as a threat to his constituents’ health. UDA, fighting to hold Mt Kenya ahead of 2027, must now contend with a legal narrative that paints its health ministry as indifferent to patient welfare in a county that was, until recently, governed by one of its own.

Kenya’s general elections are less than ten months away. The political temperature across Mt Kenya is already running high. A courtroom in Nairobi, examining the question of who switched off a health platform in Murang’a, has just become one of the more consequential political arenas in the country.

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