Kenyan teacher stranded in India as SHA delays Ksh.5M bone marrow transplant

From a hospital bed in India, thousands of miles from home, Grace Jepkemoi Chepyegon, a Kenyan teacher, fights a silent battle against Acute Myeloid Leukemia. While hope remains her weapon, growing bills remains her reality.

Before her diagnosis in 2025, she was a beloved teacher, the pride of her learners and her community. For the last three months, she has been a patient in India in urgent need of a bone marrow transplant at a cost of at least Ksh.5 million.

Her family has already exhausted another Ksh.5 million on chemotherapy, travel, and desensitization.

They believed that being registered under the Social Health Authority (SHA), after the transition from teachers’ medical cover provided by a local firm, would be their safety net. They were wrong.

Her husband, Laban Kipkut, says: “Tulienda na yeye India…kufika pale, akapelekwa hospitali mahali anafaa kusaidikia, ile pesa ilitumika mpaka ikaisha kabla hajatibiwa. Ako na shida ya bone marrow anataka kufanyiwa transplant.”

Back home, the family's search for answers has been a merry-go-round of letters. From SHA to the Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC), the silence has been deafening.

“Tukaanza kukimbia kutafuta usaidizi kutoka SHA, tukaenda SHA tukatumwa kuenda TSC... Hii ni wiki ya tatu hatujajibiwa lolote. Wanasema bado wanafanya identification and registration ya mahospitali iko India kwanza. Anapewa tu dawa kidogo kidogo ya painkiller akingoja siku hiyo,” Kipkut said.

So, why isn't SHA paying? The Authority’s CEO, Dr. Mercy Mwangangi, this week admitted to a Parliamentary committee that the system is paralyzed.

Under the new Social Health Insurance Act, SHA must follow a rigorous, fresh procurement process to onboard and contract every single foreign hospital.

Unlike the old NHIF, which had existing networks, SHA is starting from zero.

“SHA initiated the procurement process we received clearance from Treasury to do so and we are now in the process of opening submissions from hospitals and extending contact…it will conclude by end of February…once concluded it will enable Kenyans to access treatment overseas,” said Dr. Mwangangi.

Hospitals in India and Turkey, weary of unpaid debts, are now demanding cash upfront, refusing to admit Kenyan patients on credit.

Chepyegon’s brother-in-law, Ben Kiprotich, said: “The appeal to the government is that they speed up the process, kama ni policy ya kupitisha sheria ili SHA ifanye, mbali na hapa kuna Wakenya wengine wanateseka. Wale wameenda huko ng’ambo serikali waongeze pesa, hii Ksh.500,000 ni kama pocket money tu.”

The Ksh.500,000 referred to is the current cap. While SHA has listed 36 to 39 procedures for overseas cover, including bone marrow transplants, the payout is currently capped at just Ksh.500,000. For a Ksh.5 million surgery, patients say it is a drop in the ocean.

For now, the teacher remains on painkillers, waiting for a contract to be signed in Nairobi so she can get a transplant in New Delhi.

The Ministry of Health maintains that the onboarding of these foreign facilities will be concluded by the end of March 2026.

But for a leukemia patient whose blasts are already at 9 percent, March might be a lifetime away.