Spokesperson of the teachers’ pressure Group (TPG), Ms Martha Omollo: She is being fought by cartels within TSC for voicing out teachers concerns
A vocal Kenyan teacher has claimed that her life is in danger after she boldly spoke out against her employer, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and called for a total revocation of the current tutors’ medical insurance scheme served by a fraudulent pan-African insurance brokerage firm known as Minet.
Reliable sources have informed cnyakundi.com that Ms Martha Omollo, who is the spokesperson of the Teachers Pressure Group (TPG), suspects that some high-ranked officials within the Nancy Macharia-led commission are behind the attempts to silence her through threats and intimidation.
This comes just four months after the brave union leader praised for filling the vacuum left by the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) in fighting for the welfare of tutors was transferred from Nairobi to Trans Nzoia County to “teach her a lesson”.
For many months, she had protested how the Nancy Macharia-led TSC in conjunction with greedy medical cartels forcefully subjected them to substandard services offered by Minet.
Speaking in November 2021, Ms Omollo recounted how the Nairobi TSC County director gave her a phone call through her headteachers’ phone, warning her that she was about to face dire consequences for airing the frustrations that millions of Kenyan teachers are facing under the medical cover.
On the same day a few minutes before 4 pm, a top official from the TSC drove to the school and handed her the transfer letter and ordered her to start clearing from the school immediately.
The headteacher, Mr Wilson Irungu, was already informed about the transfer earlier and had typed and signed her release letter.
The document signed by Fredrick Mwaniki on behalf of TSC CEO Nancy Macharia directed Omollo to report to the Trans Nzoia TSC county director by Monday.
Nairobi TSC director was asked to inform the commission’s head office on the date she is released from the region and that the time of her release should not take more than 14 days.
Still undeterred, her union, the TPG, which is made up of teachers from primary, secondary schools as well as training colleges. want the contract awarded to the incapacitated firm under questionable circumstances in 2019 revoked and replaced with a better one.
Martha Omollo argues that the TSC forced teachers to register with the AON Minet Scheme without allowing teachers to participate in the process of identifying and selecting the scheme administrator and health provider.
To better understand the plight of these voiceless educators, it is best we lay down some numbers first.
Kenyan teachers in job group B5 (often referred to as P1 teachers) give out Sh954 per teacher to Minet, while those in Job Group H contribute Sh 1,200 every month.
In Job Group K, the contribution per month per teacher ranges from Sh1860 to Sh1,897, while those in job group L give out Sh2,246 to the firm.
For Job Group M teachers’ monthly deductions stand at Sh2,688 while those in Job Group N contribute Sh3,044.
To bring these numbers together, we did the math according to the number of teachers on the official TSC payroll.
The results show that P1 teachers contribute at least Sh90 million every month, while Group H and K give out Sh33 million and Sh55 million respectively.
Additionally, those in Group L contribute up to Sh74 million with those in Group M contributing Sh64 million while Group N contributes Sh21 million every month.
Approximately, the cumulative amount is no less than a whopping Sh337 million every month! This is despite excluding figures of those in job groups J, Q and R.
This means that on average, teachers contribute at least Sh4 billion a year to a medical scheme meant to offer quality and superior cover which the state-owned National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) cannot match.
The total amount collected by the medical scheme is probably even much higher than we can imagine.
With teachers forking out such amounts, one would expect first-class health services
But as Ms Omollo reveals, this is entirely not the case.
Teachers are treated to horrid experiences whilst seeking medical care.
To make matters worse, some teachers serving in remote areas of the country are forced to dig deeper into their pockets and seek medical care from other private entities despite incurring heavy insurance costs.
If that’s not enough, those enrolled under the scheme are limited to only two health providers namely: Bliss GVS Healthcare Limited (owned by Jayesh Saini) and Ladopharma Nursing Home Limited.
In some parts of the country, teachers have confessed that medics are often left in shock when they list Minet as their insurance of choice.
Funnily enough, TSC supports the medical scheme claiming that it is the best of its kind in the region.
The group has also been pushing for tutors to resist the Teacher Professional Development Programme (TPD).
Ms Omollo has now urged the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) as well as the National Police Service (NPS) to listen to her cries for help before its too late.
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