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Adding staff to SHA employer registration in Kenya (2026)

The end-to-end employer portal workflow for adding new staff to SHA, handling existing SHA member numbers, staff without SHA numbers yet, timing, and off-boarding when staff leave.

AO
by Reviewed by Michael Mwangi 10 min read Updated 26 August 2026Verified 26 Aug 2026

The two onboarding paths

Every new hire falls into one of two SHA states on their first day:

  1. They already have a SHA member number. Most Kenyans on formal payrolls do, either from a previous employer or from an individual registration during the NHIF-to-SHA transition. In this case you link, you do not create.
  2. They do not have a SHA member number. The employer cannot open a member profile on their behalf. The employee must first register as an individual, then the employer links.

Either way, the employer starts by checking. Ask every new hire on day one: "What is your SHA member number?" If they do not know, ask for their National ID and check on the portal against the ID. If nothing surfaces, they need to register.

The employer portal workflow

On the assumption the employee already has a SHA member number:

  1. Log in to employers.sha.go.ke [Source 1].
  2. Navigate to the employee register or member management section.
  3. Choose "add employee" and enter the employee's National ID.
  4. The portal returns the SHA member profile that matches the ID.
  5. Confirm the name and identifying details match.
  6. Enter gross monthly pay, start date, and job title where prompted.
  7. Save. The employee is now on your active roster and will appear on the next monthly deduction schedule.

Batch adds are supported via CSV upload for employers hiring many staff at once. The CSV template is available on the portal after login.

Required staff details

  • National ID (mandatory; passport for non-Kenyan staff, where accepted)
  • Full names as on ID
  • Date of birth as on ID
  • Gross monthly pay in KES
  • Start date of employment
  • Job title
  • Employee phone number (recommended, used by SHA to confirm coverage status)

The National ID is the single most-important field. Everything the SHA record does downstream keys off the ID. A wrong ID means the deduction lands but does not credit the employee's coverage. This is the archetypal "paid but inactive" complaint pattern. See payment not reflecting.

Case A: employee already has a SHA member number

This is the majority case. SHA coverage is portable across employers, so a member number issued during a previous employment stays with the person and their household. When you add them, the portal recognises the member profile against the ID and simply attaches your employer account as the current source of contribution.

Nothing on the employee's household coverage should reset. If they had dependants registered, those stay registered. If they had a pending Lipa Pole Pole plan from a Tier 2 period between jobs, that context transfers too.

Case B: employee does not have a SHA member number

Route the employee through individual registration first. Three practical options:

  • afyayangu.go.ke: online self-service, quickest option for anyone with a smartphone and a working ID.
  • Huduma Centre: walk in with ID.
  • Nearest SHA office or Level 4+ facility with a SHA registration desk.

See our detailed member-side guide, how to register for SHA. Once the employee has a member number, come back to the employer portal and add them.

A common employer temptation is to run the deduction anyway on the first payroll and worry about registration later. Do not do that. The deduction will land against no member, will be difficult to reallocate, and the employee will show as uncovered on the same first month you have started paying for them.

Timing

  • Existing member, portal add: usually same-day to next working day for the roster to reflect and the next remittance to be credited correctly.
  • New registration via afyayangu.go.ke: often within a few hours to a day, depending on ID verification.
  • Huduma Centre walk-in: typically same-day, sometimes next-day where the branch queue is heavy.
  • Manual review triggered by ID data mismatch: up to a few working days. If a new hire's details do not match the National Registration Bureau record cleanly, expect delay. The fix is to correct the ID data at the registration bureau, not on the SHA side.

Time the onboarding so the employee is fully linked before the first payroll cut-off. If they join mid-month and the linkage is not clean by cut-off, hold the SHIF deduction on that first payslip and back-date it on the second, together with a note in the deduction schedule explaining the correction.

Off-boarding leavers

When a staff member leaves:

  1. Include the last month's SHIF in the final payroll (2.75% of the last gross, or KES 300 floor).
  2. On the employer portal, mark the employee as off-boarded with their leave date.
  3. File the final deduction schedule and remit as normal by the 9th of the following month.

The employee remains a SHA member after they leave. Their coverage is portable. Whether they continue to pay via a new employer or as an individual Tier 2 member depends on where they land next. See SHA for the informal sector and self-employed for the between-jobs Tier 2 pattern.

Onboarding checklist for a new hire in 2026

A clean SHA onboarding process for a Kenyan new hire, integrated into the wider onboarding pack:

  1. On offer acceptance, ask for the National ID and the SHA member number if they know it.
  2. On day one, confirm the SHA member number against the ID via the employer portal.
  3. If no member number returns, direct the new hire to afyayangu.go.ke or the nearest Huduma Centre before payroll cut-off.
  4. Once linked, capture gross monthly pay, start date, and job title on the portal.
  5. Confirm on the next payslip that SHIF appears as a line item and is 2.75% of the actual gross paid that month.
  6. Ask the employee to verify their SHA record via USSD *147# within their first two weeks. See SHA USSD guide.

Building the check into onboarding rather than treating it as a payroll-only task means the employee themselves catches any linkage issue in week one, not month three at a hospital.

Household registration is separate

Adding an employee to your SHA employer roster does not register their dependants. Household coverage under SHA runs off the individual member profile, and dependants (spouse, children, sometimes elderly parents in the household) must be registered by the member themselves via afyayangu.go.ke.

This is a common employee misunderstanding. The employer deducts, the employer remits, and the employee is covered. But the spouse and children only appear on the same coverage once the member has added them on the portal. See SHA household coverage for the individual-member side of the workflow.

Common issues and fixes

  • National ID does not match: if the portal returns "no member profile found" against an ID the employee insists is theirs, the mismatch is on the National Registration Bureau side, not SHA. The employee needs to correct that first.
  • Duplicate member profile: where an employee has been registered twice (once via afyayangu.go.ke and once via a facility desk), SHA needs to consolidate. Call 0800 720 601. Do not try to route deductions to both.
  • Previous employer still active on the record: if the previous employer did not off-board on the portal, the new one can still add. SHA takes the most recent employer as the current source of contribution. The old employer's zero remittances will still show on the record until they clean up.
  • Expatriate staff: non-Kenyan employees on a Kenyan payroll are in scope for SHA. Registration typically uses passport plus Kenyan work permit reference. See employer portal help for the current documentation set.

Sources

  1. Employer portal: employers.sha.go.ke, accessed 26 August 2026.
  2. Individual member registration: afyayangu.go.ke, accessed 26 August 2026.
  3. SHA premium rates: sha.go.ke/premium-rates, accessed 26 August 2026.
  4. SHA toll-free helpline 0800 720 601.