Kenya’s teachers are suffering under a failing health insurance scheme, betrayed by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and the dysfunctional Minet-led consortium. This catastrophic breakdown has left thousands of educators humiliated, helpless, and neglected due to mismanagement and financial irresponsibility.
Parliament’s Education Committee last week heard shocking reports of unpaid hospital bills, teachers detained in hospital wards for months, and grieving families denied funeral support from TSC Chief Executive Nancy Macharia. TSC and Minet are instead passing the blame.
Nancy Macharia admitted that attempts to transfer teachers to the Social Health Authority (SHA) collapsed. SHA lacked the structure, demanded an exorbitant Ksh 37 billion, nearly double Minet’s Ksh 20 billion budget, and admitted it could not implement the scheme this year. The now-defunct National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), another option, had previously quoted unaffordable figures, leaving TSC without viable alternatives.
The Minet scheme is a disgrace. MPs heard stories of teachers turned away from hospitals, delayed treatment approvals, and families denied death benefits. Even basic medications are often unavailable, forcing teachers to pay for life-saving drugs themselves.
MP Julius Melly, Education Committee Chair, called the scheme a “mongrel,” insulting every teacher it fails. Lawmakers labelled it “chaotic,” “useless,” and “unhelpful,” demanding a complete overhaul. Shockingly, a tender for a new provider received no bids, likely due to the scheme’s toxic reputation and financial chaos. National Treasury delays, with Ksh 11.2 billion still unpaid for the third-year policy, have deepened the crisis.
Teachers across Kenya are crying out, not just undervalued but betrayed. The psychological toll of being treated as expendable is immense. Those shaping Kenya’s future deserve better than this shameful neglect.
This is more than a health insurance failure, it is a national scandal exposing public sector rot and Kenya’s failure to value its educators. Half-measures and excuses are unacceptable. Teachers deserve justice now.
