Mumias East Member of Parliament Peter Salasya on Wednesday, November 5, 2025, condemned the continued closure of St. Mary's Mission Hospital in Mumias, describing it as a “national failure of policy and oversight” that has devastated healthcare access in Western Kenya. The legislator's statement highlighted the tragic shutdown of the nearly century-old institution, which has ceased major operations since early June 2025 due to crippling financial debts.

In his statement, Mr. Salasya lamented that staff, including doctors and nurses, had received redundancy letters, indicating a permanent collapse despite government assurances. “The people of Mumias and the wider Western region depended on St Mary's for affordable and accessible healthcare services,” Salasya stated, adding that promises from the Ministry of Health to clear outstanding debts through the new Social Health Authority (SHA) amounted to “mere lip service.”

A Financial Crisis Decades in the Making

St. Mary's Mission Hospital, a Level 4 teaching and referral facility founded in 1932 by the Ursuline Sisters of Bergen, has been a cornerstone of healthcare in Kakamega County and beyond, serving patients from Butere, Bungoma, and Busia. Its closure has been attributed to a severe financial crisis stemming from approximately KSh 180 million in unpaid claims from government health schemes.

The debt is reportedly composed of two major parts:

• Around KSh 140 million owed by the now-defunct National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).
• An additional KSh 40 million in unpaid claims from the new Social Health Authority (SHA), which replaced NHIF.

According to Kakamega Catholic Bishop Joseph Obanyi, whose diocese manages the hospital, the persistent delays in payments made it impossible to pay the 200-strong workforce—who reportedly went four months without salaries—or to procure essential medical supplies. The staff were formally instructed not to report for duty on July 1, 2025, effectively shutting down most services. While the main hospital is closed, some specialized units, including the Comprehensive Care Unit for HIV/AIDS patients, the renal unit, and the mortuary, have remained operational.

Conflicting Narratives and Political Fallout

The hospital's closure has ignited a fierce political debate, with conflicting accounts from the government and hospital management. In August and September 2025, Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale announced that the government had struck a deal to reopen the facility and had disbursed significant funds. CS Duale, alongside Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa, stated that SHA had paid KSh 98 million to the hospital between December 2024 and August 2025, with a balance of KSh 35 million pending.

However, these figures have been contested. Bishop Obanyi acknowledged receiving some funds but maintained that a substantial debt remained, particularly the legacy debt from NHIF. The situation was further complicated when, as of late October 2025, reports confirmed the hospital was still not operational despite the announced deal. CS Duale later told the Senate that the issue was being exploited for “political expediency.”

The crisis has drawn sharp criticism from other regional leaders. Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale squarely blamed the Ruto administration's rollout of the SHA, stating, “It has been three weeks since the closure of St. Mary's Mission Hospital because President Ruto brought the SHA which is not working.”

Impact on the Kenyan Public

The shutdown of St. Mary's has created a significant healthcare vacuum in the region. Thousands of patients have been forced to travel longer distances to already overstretched public facilities, such as the Kakamega County General Hospital. The human cost is immense, with residents like Thomas Wandera, a boda boda rider, describing the exhausting and expensive daily journey to seek care for his wife who developed complications after childbirth.

MP Salasya has called on the Ministry of Health to urgently honour its commitments to clear all debts and work with local leadership to restore the hospital's operations. The saga of St. Mary's Mumias reflects a broader national challenge concerning the transition to SHA, with multiple private and faith-based hospitals across Kenya reporting severe financial strain due to delayed government payments.