Since June 2015, all teachers employed by the TSC, lost their medical allowance.

In its place, teachers were to be given a comprehensive medical cover, offered through a reputable insurance broker, upon securing a bid in a free and open manner.

AoN-Minet, a British-American multinational, was preferred to other firms, that had expressed interest, and commenced the cover on 1st July 2015.

At first, the cover was to run for one year as a trial, to ascertain its effects, if satisfactory, then the programme would be rolled for a much longer period.

The whole intention of providing a medical cover to teachers was not a bad one.

In fact, the teachers welcomed the idea. Never did they know that they will be subjected to backstreet clinics, services that were below par, get harassed and embarrassed by medics in some of these facilities, as they were receiving poor services offered at exorbitant pricing, in makeshift hospitals.

During the first year, commencing 1st July 2015 to June 2016, teachers complained of having been turned away by these facilities claiming that TSC had not disbursed the money to them.

In other facilities, medicines dispensed were of low quality, issued even without a diagnosis.

Furthermore, other facilities exaggerated their prices, especially on items. In a case where a teacher had an annual cover for optical services amounting to Sh20,000, a pair of spectacles or sunglasses, depleted your limit.

A single visit meant you had no balance, until next financial year. Yet, such an item would cost a maximum Sh6,000, if bought on cash.

That was the case across the board, even for those with annual limits of Sh10,000 and Sh15,000 and was the scenario for dental services, besides taking extra cash money from teachers, in each visit at the facilities.

There are rampant cases of insults and threats from medical providers targeting teachers for dues not paid by the insurer, even after they provided services such as minor and major surgeries.

As all these were going on, the teachers' employer continued receiving at least Sh5 billion from the treasury, the money that should have been given to teachers as their medical allowance.

According the medical scheme arrangement, the lowest teacher, P1 had to part with Sh900 while the highest, a principal had to lose about Sh12,000, towards the medical cover, the medical cover that seems to be a mirage, and conduit to enrich a certain clique of tenderpreneurs, at the expense of a Kenyan teacher.

AoN won again a three-year tender from 2016 to 2019, effective from July 2016. No change so far, same hospitals, frustrations, complains from teachers, yet no redress.