The importance of Health Insurance Schemes has become an increasingly recognized
factor in financing health care in low income economies as it allows individuals to access
timely and high quality medical care. Unfortunately in Kenya, health insurance is skewed
in favor of formal sector workers as they are mandated by law to make statutory
contributions to the NHIF (National Health Insurance Fund) in proportion to their
income. The aim of this study was to find out the “Determinants of the Uptake of
National Health Insurance Among Informal Sector Workers in Kenya.” The study used
secondary data collected from the Kenya Household Health Expenditure and Utilization
Survey (KHHEUS) collected by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) in
2013. Descriptive statistics and the probit model were used in explaining the variables
and in the estimation process respectively. The results were that only 14% of the informal
sector workers had NHIF. Therefore most of the informal sector workers did not have
NHIF cover. All the independent variables namely age, level of education, marital status,
gender, household size, place of residence, behavioral factors, wealth index and
belonging to an alternative community based health insurance scheme were found to be
significant. A big household size, belonging to an alternative community based health
insurance scheme, being male and smoking negatively affected the uptake of NHIF
among informal sector workers. However a higher wealth index, being married, being
educated, an increase in age and awareness positively affected the uptake of NHIF among
informal sector workers.