Angry teachers stormed the office of Minet Insurance Company in Kakamega Town and locked up the premises in protest. The demonstrators, who are members of the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers, claimed negligence on the part of Minet, which had cost two brothers their lives.
The peaceful protest was led by the Kakamega KUPPET branch Executive Secretary, Harrison Otota. According to them, the critical issue has been the unavailability of prescribed drugs in Minet-accredited hospitals. The case in point was where two teachers died: one who was suffering from bipolar disorder and could not get the required medication, and another who died due to the failure to approve insulin injections for management of diabetes.
“We buried two teachers last week,” Otota lamented. “This cannot go on.”
Johnston Wabuti, KUPPET Kakamega branch chairman, said they had written to TSC demanding that it withdraws the insurance services of Minet for medical cover and agitated for the enrollment of all Kakamega teachers in the National Health Insurance Fund.
“There is no way a teacher can miss drugs for treating bipolar illness for a whole month to the point of dying,” Wabuti said. “We are demanding TSC terminates our contract with Minet so that we avoid unnecessary deaths.”
Although numerous discussions have been held on the revamping of the services, Minet has failed to respond to the concerns raised by the teachers. We reached out for comment to the officials from Minet, but by the time of going to press, they were yet to respond. The stand-off is still rife as KUPPET demands a much more dependable and comprehensive medical cover for the teaching fraternity.