RUPHA boss faults Ruto over Linda Mama remarks, warns politicizing maternal care risks leaving women vulnerable

The Rural Private Hospitals Association of Kenya (RUPHA) has raised alarm over President William Ruto’s recent remarks equating the defunct Linda Mama program with the newly launched Linda Jamii.

RUPHA chairperson Brian Lishenga argued that Linda Mama, despite challenges of underfunding and verification, was a crucial safety net that served “hundreds of thousands” of indigent women across the country. He cautioned that comparing its impact with Linda Jamii, which has so far covered only 41,000 women, risks undermining years of progress in maternal health care.

“Linda Mama was designed as a social protection program. It reached hundreds of thousands of women who only needed to prove they were Kenyan residents. In contrast, Linda Jamii’s current reach is far smaller, and celebrating 41,000 beneficiaries is not something to clap about,” he said during a TV interview on Wednesday, October 1.

Lishenga further challenged equity in reimbursement, questioning why faith-based and private facilities receive lower compensation compared to public hospitals. “Does Ksh1,000 explain the difference in inputs between government facilities and private or faith-based ones? Because it does not,” he remarked.

While acknowledging flaws in Linda Mama, such as poor funding and verification issues, the RUPHA boss stressed that the solution should have been fixing the gaps, not scrapping the program. “It was an underfunding problem; it was a verification problem. That does not mean we throw away the baby with the bathwater,” he warned.

President Ruto, while speaking at UMMA University in Kajiado County on Tuesday, September 30, defended the government’s decision to replace Linda Mama with Linda Jamii under the Social Health Authority (SHA). He described Linda Jamii as a more comprehensive scheme, covering prenatal, delivery, and postnatal care, and extending benefits to entire households, not just mothers.

“Linda Mama was good, but Linda Jamii is obviously better. It targets the mother, children, and household. It is an improvement in both scope and delivery,” Ruto said.

Even so, critics like Lishenga argue that the new model increases costs for vulnerable women and could worsen maternal deaths if not implemented equitably.

The debate comes at a time when the government is pushing to expand SHA coverage, with over 25 million Kenyans already registered. But concerns remain on whether key groups, especially indigent mothers in rural areas will continue to access care without financial strain.