The Social Health Authority (SHA) has rolled out a biometric registration exercise for children.
SHA Chief Executive Officer Mercy Mwangangi said the exercise marks the first phase of registering children aged 7 to 17 years, an exercise aimed at improving access and streamlining service delivery.
“SHA requires biometrics to be able to identify our patients and to be able to determine their eligibility, meaning whether the client has fully paid and can access services,” she said.
“We have been able to roll out biometrics for people above 18 years of age, but we all know that in our population most of us have young dependants. Today marks the first time we are rolling out biometric checks for children aged seven to eighteen.”
SHA Rolls Out Biometric Registration for Children Aged 7–17 Years
Mwangangi said the authority currently records about 26,000 checks daily, representing thousands of people engaging with its system each day. She added that SHA also handles an estimated half a million visits every month.
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SHA CEO noted the high volume of engagements makes it necessary for the authority to accurately identify members, verify their benefits, and ensure only eligible individuals access services.
“We need to ensure that we are able to identify our members, determine their benefits, identify eligibility and curb fraud,” she said.
Mwangangi urged Kenyans to present their children for enrolment whenever they visit health facilities.
“Going forward, if you have children aged seven years and above, we are encouraging all Kenyans. When you come to the hospital, bring all your children, capture their biometrics, enrol them, and then you will be able to get the services that you need,” she said.
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Biometrics Replace OTP Use
The rollout comes against the backdrop of Kenya’s broader digital health transformation programme under the Ministry of Health.
In August 2025, the Ministry of Health launched the Biometric Health Identification (BHI) system at Kenyatta University Teaching, Research and Referral Hospital (KUTRRH), marking a major step in digitizing patient identification and reducing fraud.
The system, unveiled under the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) and the Digital Superhighway initiative, allows patients to access healthcare using fingerprint verification instead of physical documents, reducing paperwork, waiting times, and misuse of benefits.
It forms part of a wider digital health ecosystem that also includes Practise360, a geo-tagged platform for healthcare professionals to prevent misuse of authorization codes; a National Product Catalogue to eliminate counterfeit medicines; and a Health Information Exchange (HIE) system to enable real-time data sharing between facilities.
Health Cabinet Secretary (CS) Aden Duale has directed that all healthcare services accessed through the SHA will not accept One-Time Password (OTP)-based authorizations.
“SHA will no longer accept OTP based authorization. All approvals must be completed using a biometric health ID or the practice 360 app,” Duale noted.
“This will help eliminate unauthorized sharing of the pre-authorization approval codes by doctors. All healthcare workers can now review, approve and manage pre-authorization claims.”
