How a free health insurance pilot is taking on medical debt in Africa
By David Njagi // 16 October 2025
In the over 15 years that Evaline Kibuchi has been working for the Stop TB Partnership in Kenya, she has come across two types of WhatsApp group fundraisers — either for someone who is battling a disease or someone who died and left a huge medical bill.
And this annoys her, that society is being pushed into crowdfunding to foot medical bills in a country that has social health insurance and a public workforce that claims the government is investing heavily in health systems.
“Where is the disconnect? We have a social insurance fund, we have governments investing in health, we have donors investing in health, yet it seems it is not reaching the people who need it. That is why we have all these WhatsApp groups for fundraising,” she said.
Printing articles to share with others is a breach of our terms and conditions and copyright policy. Please use the sharing options on the left side of the article. Devex Pro members may share up to 10 articles per month using the Pro share tool ( ).
About the author
David Njagi
David Njagi is a Kenya-based Devex Contributing Reporter with over 12 years’ experience in the field of journalism. He graduated from the Technical University of Kenya with a diploma in journalism and public relations. He has reported for local and international media outlets, such as the BBC Future Planet, Reuters AlertNet, allAfrica.com, Inter Press Service, Science and Development Network, Mongabay Reporting Network, and Women’s Media Center.
Search for articles
Most Read
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5