#MINETMUSTGO: KUPPET Finally Petitions AON-MINET for Breach of Agreement and Poor Services
The death of the Homabay school principal allegedly of Covid-19 sparked outrage from the teachers across the country.
This was precipitated by the allegations that the late Ober Boys’ principal-Maurice Waudi Muholo– had died after the Agha Khan hospital Kisumu branch denied him admission at the facility citing his lack of a comprehensive medical cover.
Those who had accompanied the late teacher also had reported that he was not admitted at the facility because he had not been registered as a beneficiary of the AON-MINET insurance cover.
This was astoundingly ridiculous because any teacher employed by the government in this country automatically is a member of this cover that was sourced by the employer TSC.
Through the Teachers Service Commission, part of the teachers ‘medical allowance was automatically channeled to the insurance provider directly while the remaining part went to the state-owned NHIF.
So many questions were raised following the incident, teachers wondering how their fellow colleague who had promptly paid his premiums to both health insurance providers could not access the much needed and urgent medical attention at the said facility!
Online Protests #Minetmustgo
The humble Kenyan teachers’ frustrations and disappointments over this AON-MINET insurance cover blew over on social media especially on tweeter with hashtag #Minetmustgo and even on Facebook teacher groups.
The hashtag on tweeter trended for two days in a row taking position two on 10th June 2020 on Top Tweeter Trends for Kenya Now.
Hundreds of teachers in utter pain expressed their disappointment with the insurance cover demanding to know why they could not access up to date medical services from health providers of good reputation.
It came to the fore that most health institutions worth their salt did not accept the said cover. The cover according to most teachers was accepted in what was termed as back street clinics that did not offer much!
The bliss chain of hospitals
Most teachers seemed angered by the bliss group of health care providers terming their services as very poor.
The staff at these hospitals was accused of being unprofessional in as far as handling their clients was concerned. Teachers wondered why the said hospital appeared to have staff that was so demotivated that they cut the picture of quacks!
Lack of specialists in these facilities also raised a storm not mentioning the lack of very basic health care equipment. It doesn’t add up that teachers with two insurance covers had to resort back to the ever congested sub-county and county health care facilities to seek medication!
The tweeter #Minetmustgo revealed a lot of untold suffering and blatant exploitation that teachers of this country had undergone under a cover that is supposedly meant to alleviate their suffering during such medical emergencies!
KUPPET Nyeri branch petition
It is after the teachers’ online protests persisted and trended that KUPPET, one of the teachers’ unions through a letter petitioned the insurance provider for what it termed as the breach of contract and poor services.
Nyeri branch KUPPET Executive Secretary- Patrick Maina- complained of the Bliss Health care provider in Nyeri that he described as a total mess, the lack of drugs to dispense to teachers who sought medication at the facility, the highly bureaucratic and extremely tedious referrals to other facilities for teachers and the shockingly poor optical services among others.
He concluded by demanding that the aforementioned issues get addressed by Minet before teachers themselves could go to the streets to demand their rights!
But the question is, hadn’t the teachers complained of these issues before? Who is KUPPET representing? Why did they have to wait until the teachers’ #MINETMUSTGO invaded and trended on tweeter?
Do teachers need this representation which they pay for dearly in the form of subscriptions every month? Why should one pay for representation and end up representing himself?
It is time the Kenyan teachers reviewed the relevance of these unions to their wellbeing!
