Press Release
Under Capitalism Healthcare is a Privilege and not a Basic Right

The Government has established the Social Health Authority (SHA) to manage social health insurance in the country. The SHA has three funds: the Primary Healthcare Fund, the Social Health Insurance Fund, and the Emergency, Chronic and Critical Illness Fund. Healthcare providers in Kenya can contract with the SHA to provide healthcare services to beneficiaries.

We in Hizb ut Tahrir/Kenya, wish to expound the following:

The SHA system, touted as a game-changer for healthcare finance policy in the country, is designed as a better version to the previous National Health Insurance Fund, (NHIF) a system that was overlapped and over shadowed with corruption cases. However, when the consortium that includes Safaricom, Apeiro and Konvergenz Network Solutions Ltd failed to deliver a functional policy claims-processing system. The cost of this hasty arrangement as always falls squarely on the shoulders of taxpayers who have already been overburden by merciless tax regime.

In capitalism, profit is the primary incentive for any financial policy services shifting from NHIF to SHA and that will be far from improving the health standard of the ordinary citizens. The main culprit is profit that capitalist regimes have prioritized over all social duties. This disastrous reality is a global phenomenon that even the so-called leading state, the U.S., is an excellent example where high costs patients are left vulnerable to the will of insurers leading to a structural violence. The murder of the United Healthcare CEO, Brian Thompson is no further from the truth.

We state that interests and public utilities must be fully undertaken by the State since they are from the issues that the State is responsible over, in accordance with the words of the Messenger (saw): «الإِمَامُ رَاعٍ وَهُوَ وَمَسْؤُولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ» “The Imam (ruler) is a guardian, who is responsible (and will be questioned) for his subjects.”

In this context, Islam has structured a healthcare as a primary duty of the State and not a privilege towards the citizen; hence, Islam obliges the state patronage of healthcare system solely to the state. State healthcare must be free of charge for all the citizens of the Khilafah, Muslims and non-Muslims. The healthcare service must be available, consistent and of high standards to all.

Shabani Mwalimu
Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir
in Kenya