SHIF — what changed from NHIF
The Social Health Insurance Fund replaced NHIF on 1 October 2024. Here's the short version of what shifted for employers.
NHIF was retired on 1 October 2024 under the Social Health Insurance Act 2023. Its successor is SHIF — the Social Health Insurance Fund — administered by the new Social Health Authority (SHA). Two payroll-relevant things changed at the same time.
Rate change
| Item | NHIF (until Sep 2024) | SHIF (from Oct 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| Calculation | Graduated bracket table (KES 150 → 1,700) | 2.75% of gross |
| Minimum | KES 150 | KES 300 |
| Maximum | KES 1,700 (capped above KES 100k gross) | No cap |
| Employer share | None | None |
| Tax treatment | 15% insurance relief (capped 5k) | Allowable PAYE deduction |
The old NHIF table is no longer accepted. If you still see KES 1,500 deductions on a payslip dated after October 2024, that's a misconfigured component — switch the deduction to SHIF (or remove NHIF from the chain and let the calculator add SHIF automatically).
Tax treatment change (Dec 2024)
The Tax Laws (Amendment) Act 2024 (effective 27 December 2024) restructured how SHIF interacts with PAYE:
- SHIF is now an allowable pre-PAYE deduction — taxable income is reduced by the SHIF contribution before the bands are applied.
- The old 15% NHIF insurance relief was repealed for SHIF. Adding it on top of the pre-PAYE deduction is double-counting — Vendly's calculator explicitly excludes SHIF from the insurance-relief sum.
- Only PRIVATE medical / life insurance premiums still qualify for the 15% insurance relief (capped at KES 5,000/month).
Filing
Monthly SHIF returns are filed via the Social Health Authority portal. Vendly's Statutory Exports page produces an SHA CSV with member number, KRA PIN, name, gross and SHIF contribution per employee — paste it into the SHA bulk-upload field.
Make sure each employee has their SHA member number on file (Personal tab on the employee profile). Without it the SHA portal rejects the row.
Generate the SHA CSV
Statutory ExportsKenya law that applies
- Social Health Insurance Act 2023
Replaced NHIF with the Social Health Authority and the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) from 1 October 2024.
- Tax Laws (Amendment) Act 2024
Made SHIF and AHL allowable pre-PAYE deductions; repealed the 15% SHIF insurance relief from 27 December 2024.
- Social Health Authority portal
Monthly SHIF return submission.