Duale Pushes HMIS Deadline To October 30 After Ordering Hard Cutoff For SHA Portal

The Ministry of Health has given health facilities another month to leave the SHA Provider Portal for the new Health Management Information System, one day after the portal was due to be shut down. In a statement signed by Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale, the Ministry said all 6,427 public Level 2 to 4 facilities have already moved to HMIS, while four public Level 5 facilities have finished and 23 are partway through. Public Level 5 facilities are now expected to complete the transition by October 30, 2026.

The extension softens an ultimatum Duale issued only days earlier. Speaking ahead of the September 30 deadline, he said private and faith-based facilities that had not moved would not be able to serve patients, telling them “if you have not transferred institutions, you cannot serve a patient in Kenya.” The Ministry’s October 1 statement reads differently. It says ” No patient will be denied access to healthcare services because a facility has not yet fully transitioned to HMIS.”   because a facility has not yet fully transitioned.

The portal was SHA’s first technological interface for providers, and the push to retire it has been running since June. Providers were told on June 29, at a stakeholder forum convened by the Ministry, SHA and the Digital Health Agency, that they had three months to integrate with HMIS or risk being decontracted. SHA chief executive Dr Mercy Mwangangi said then, “we will have no option but to decontract non-compliant facilities.”

The first cutover came at midnight on June 29, when claims processing for Level 4 public hospitals moved to the Taifa Care HMIS, with new claims to be filed through the new platform and earlier claims left in the portal to be processed. On September 1, SHA moved the compliance deadline for providers to September 30, citing the need for time to complete configuration and certification.

The government’s case rests on the old system’s record. The HMIS is said to fix problems that dogged the portal, namely delayed reimbursements, weak verification and claims fraud, and that it allows real-time patient verification, electronic claims processing and secure provider authentication. Duale also told facilities that patients’ scans and records can be viewed across hospitals without being carried, and said the Treasury has been asked to set aside money in October for outstanding NHIF arrears owed to faith-based and private facilities.

The numbers show where the delay sits. Of 518 contracted faith-based facilities, 38 have completed the move, and the Ministry says 28 existing private HMIS platforms have been certified by the Digital Health Agency. Kenyatta National Hospital and Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital are expected to finish by the end of next week, with other Level 6 facilities due by October 30.

The remaining work falls on private and faith-based providers, who are being asked to certify or replace their own systems. The Digital Health Agency will run Rapid Results Initiatives through October to help them, and the Ministry meets health sector associations on Friday, October 2, to agree facility-by-facility plans.

The HMIS deadline also sits alongside a separate and tense contracting process. SHA chief executive Mercy Mwangangi announced on Thursday that providers now have until October 14 to complete their contracts for the 2026-2029 cycle, 14 days later than planned. The new contracts, branded HAKIKA, run from October 1, 2026 to June 30, 2029.

The Ministry of Health launched them on September 18 alongside an e-contracting platform where facilities submit documents, verify licences and sign online. The earlier cutoff was September 30, when existing contracts were due to expire at 11:59pm, and SHA had warned that facilities without an executed contract would lose access to the provider portal and be barred from offering services.

The extension softens that warning, but only for a fortnight. Facilities keep operating under their existing contracts until October 14, after which the contracts lapse, and SHA says no further extension will be granted. Each provider is being issued a 14-day extension of its current contract through the e-contracting platform. Mwangangi said providers must “confirm acceptance, sign, and return the agreement within three (3) days,” and that services to SHA beneficiaries continue only at facilities that accept it.

Providers that decline have been told to work with their SHA county managers to move patients on ongoing care to contracted facilities. SHA will run HAKIKA contracting clinics in every county from Monday, October 5, through its county offices, and says 10,006 providers have expressed interest and are at different stages of the process.