The National Hospital Insurance Fund Board has, in consultation with the Cabinet Secretary for Health, increased the rates for the mandatory National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) deductions. The rates were published in today’s Kenya Gazette and will be effective 1st April 2015.

Under the new rates schedule, the lowest monthly NHIF deduction, which applies to employees earning KES 5999, will be at the rate of KES 150 per month, up from the previous minimum of KES 30 per month payable by employees earning KES 1000. It is not clear whether employees earning less than KES 5999 will be subjected to NHIF.

The maximum NHIF deduction which applies to employees earning KES 100,000 and above will be at the rate of KES 1700 per month. Under the current regime the maximum deduction was KES 320 per month, applicable to all employees earning KES 15,000 and above. Self-employed persons will now be required to contribute at a flat rate of KES 500 per month. The NHIF Board has been trying to introduce revised rates since 2010 but all previous attempts were resisted by trade unions and employers, and therefore never implemented.