Baby Chloe Nyangau, a 10-month-old girl from Kenya, is stuck in India after the Social Health Authority allegedly failed to honour a Ksh500,000 commitment meant to fund her heart surgery.
Her mother is with her in Chennai, while her father, Boniface Nyangau, is in Kenya trying to find answers.
The family is devastated, as this amount was supposed to cover a portion of the Ksh1.8 million cost needed for the treatment. Chloe was diagnosed with a serious heart problem shortly after birth, and doctors said she would not survive without surgery.
Since this type of surgery wasn’t available in Kenya, her parents found a hospital in India that could do it.
After a series of consultations and medical referrals, Chloe was offered treatment at Miot Hospital in Chennai.
The family approached the Social Health Authority, which replaced NHIF, to seek financial help. They were promised Ksh500,000 after completing all formal procedures.
Boniface says he got a no-objection letter from the Ministry of Health, signed by Dr. Emmanuel Tanui, supporting the need for treatment abroad.
With the SHA commitment in place, the family raised the remaining Ksh1.125 million from friends, relatives, and well-wishers. They travelled to India believing the government would fulfil its promise.
But when they arrived, the SHA allegedly backtracked. According to Boniface, the same system that promised to help now claimed the letter from the Ministry was fake.
Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale, when questioned by the media, said the letter was not genuine and that investigations were ongoing. He added that SHA follows strict laws that only allow foreign medical support when the treatment is unavailable locally.
However, Chloe’s family says they did everything by the book and had clear confirmation that the surgery was not available in Kenya.
Despite the Health CS’s statement, the letter shared with the media showed the Ministry had given permission. SHA has remained silent, offering no official statement to explain the contradiction.
Meanwhile, Chloe’s surgery has already been done, but the family cannot pay the remaining hospital costs, leaving her stranded in a foreign country.
The situation has caused a lot of anger online, with many Kenyans criticising the SHA for being unreliable and unfair. People are calling for investigations, and some are demanding that CS Duale step aside until the matter is resolved.
Boniface, who has always paid his NHIF and now SHA contributions, feels betrayed. He believed that when his family needed help the most, the system would respond. Instead, he says they were left alone.
Several civil society groups have now shown support and want Parliament to investigate how such a serious promise could be broken. They say this is not just about one baby but about the entire system’s failure.
For now, Chloe remains in a hospital bed, waiting for her father’s appeals to be heard. She can’t be discharged or brought home without the money.
Boniface continues to beg the Ministry and SHA to do what they promised. He says this is not a favour, but a commitment the government made and one that could mean the difference between life and death for his daughter.
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