On November 24, 2025, Kenya's Social Health Authority (SHA) responded to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request submitted by Africa Uncensored on August 4, 2025. The request sought clarity on SHA's means-testing system and criteria used to determine monthly premiums for Kenyans in the informal sector. Two weeks later, the hashtag #SHAAt28Million with the phrase "means testing" began trending on social media platform X.
An investigation by Piga Firimbi found that the hashtag #SHAAt28Million was driven by a highly coordinated campaign, likely aimed at diverting public attention from concerns raised about SHA's means-testing system. The campaign displayed several indicators of coordinated and inauthentic amplification, including synchronized posting bursts, near-identical copy-pasted content, and a small cluster of "seed" accounts whose messages were mass-amplified within narrow time windows.
Kenya's Health System uses proxy means testing (PMT) to estimate income for people in the informal sector, who make up nearly 80% of Kenya's workforce. Households are required to contribute 2.75% of their income to the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF). The model used to estimate income is based on 43 variables derived from several questions asked during registration, including housing material, ownership of assets, education level, and household size.
The investigation found that the hashtag campaign followed a classic astroturfing curve, with a low morning start, a massive midday burst, and a sustained afternoon tail. The Twitter campaign's peak burst occurred less than three weeks after SHA's reply, consistent with a reactive, coordinated counter-narrative operation. A dataset of 872 tweets captured from December 9-10, 2025, revealed that 465 were reposts (53.4%) while 406 were original posts or replies (46.6%).
The means-testing system has raised concerns about fairness and accuracy, with findings by Africa Uncensored, Lighthouse Reports, and Guardian showing that it tends to overestimate the income of the poorest households while underestimating that of the wealthiest ones. In the documentary ErrorbyDesign, nearly 80% of the poorest households are likely charged more than they should be, while over 60% of the wealthiest households would contribute less than expected.
The investigation also found that the hashtag #SHAAt28Million appears to be a campaign-created hashtag designed to flood search results and trend organically. The campaign's posting concentration was compressed into approximately 13 hours, with a peak burst of 120 tweets in a 5-minute window, accounting for 9.5% of all daily tweet activity. This level of burst posting is inconsistent with normal organic engagement.
Key findings from the investigation include a highly coordinated campaign behind the #SHAAt28Million hashtag, concerns about the fairness and accuracy of SHA's means-testing system, and a campaign-created hashtag designed to manipulate public discourse.
Key points
- The investigation revealed a coordinated campaign behind the #SHAAt28Million hashtag, which was likely aimed at diverting public attention from concerns raised about SHA's means-testing system.
- The means-testing system used by SHA has raised concerns about fairness and accuracy, with findings showing that it tends to overestimate the income of the poorest households while underestimating that of the wealthiest ones.
- The hashtag campaign displayed several indicators of coordinated and inauthentic amplification, including synchronized posting bursts and near-identical copy-pasted content.
