Kenya Health Amendment Bill No. 56: Emergency Care and Body Release
By Shiled Jerono | Updated October 9, 2026
Kenya’s proposal to protect emergency treatment and stop public hospitals from holding deceased people’s bodies over unpaid bills is the Health (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2024, National Assembly Bill No. 56 of 2024. It is sponsored by Kirinyaga Woman Representative Jane Njeri Maina. It is a different proposal from the similarly named Health (Amendment) Bill, 2024, National Assembly Bill No. 54 of 2024.
What Bill No. 56 proposes
The bill would amend the Health Act to make it an offence for a public health facility or the responsible health-care provider to withhold emergency treatment until prospective costs are paid, or to detain a deceased person’s body to recover an outstanding medical bill. The proposal concerns how a facility may respond to a debt; it does not state that a patient’s lawful bill is automatically cancelled.
Where the Bill stands
The National Assembly debated the Bill on February 11 and 12, 2026. The House passed the second-reading question and committed the Bill to the Committee of the Whole House. Parliament’s tracker dated August 27, 2026 still records the committee stage as pending and shows no assent date. That is the latest tracker located for this update; readers should check Parliament’s tracker for any later change.
Second reading is one step in the law-making process. Until the Bill completes the required stages and becomes law, its proposed offence and body-release rules should not be described as enacted provisions.
What applies now
Article 43(2) of Kenya’s Constitution says that a person shall not be denied emergency medical treatment. That protection already exists independently of Bill No. 56. The Bill would add specific provisions to the Health Act, including the proposed offence relating to detention of bodies in public facilities. A dispute about a particular emergency, hospital bill or release of a body can depend on the facts; families may seek help from the facility’s management, the relevant county health department or a qualified Kenyan lawyer.
Why supporters back it
In the February debate, supporters said patients should not have to arrange payment before receiving emergency treatment and that holding a deceased person’s body adds distress for grieving families. The sponsor also told the House that the committee’s proposed scope covered public facilities, while arguing for equal protection across public and private facilities. Those were arguments made during debate; the final legal effect depends on the Bill’s final text and enactment.
In short: the proposal is Bill No. 56 of 2024, not the separate Bill No. 54. It passed second reading in February 2026, but Parliament’s August 27 tracker still showed committee-stage consideration pending. The constitutional protection against denial of emergency treatment is already in force; the Bill’s additional provisions are not yet law according to that tracker.
Sources
- National Assembly: February 2026 report on MPs’ debate of the Bill
- National Assembly Hansard, February 11, 2026
- National Assembly Bills Tracker, status as at August 27, 2026
- Kenya Law Reform Commission: Constitution, Article 43
- Parliament Library: Committee report on National Assembly Bill No. 56 of 2024
