KUPPET Chair Milemba urges gov’t to improve SHA cover for teachers

Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) National Chair and Emuhaya MP Omboko Milemba has urged the government to improve Social Health Authority (SHA) medical cover services, highlighting that teachers, who contribute the most, are receiving subpar care.

Speaking at the burial of Kenya Primary Schools Headteachers Association (KEPSHA) Chair Johnson Nzioka in Machakos County on Friday, Milemba decried the inadequate services teachers continue to face at both public and private healthcare facilities due to ongoing challenges with SHA.

“I have already talked to the Chairman of the Education Committee because the medical cover for the teachers is wobbling despite the fact that these are the people who gave up their medical cover to have the current cover,” he said.

“They gave up money from their payslips, they are the heaviest lifters of SHA because they still pay 2.7 percent. You cannot afford to have such people without a proper medical cover.”

Milemba further criticized the government for delaying the payments owed to last year's KCSE examiners and supervisors, calling it unfair. He also condemned the government for neglecting P1 teachers who have been waiting for employment since 2010.

“The late Nzioka would have been very excited to ask that KNEC pays all the examiners, supervisors, and invigilators. This needs to be paid because exams were done a long time ago,” he said.

In response, Education Principal Secretary (PS) Belio Kipsang assured that all owed payments were released by the government on Thursday. He added that Nzioka had left a lasting impact on Kenya's education transition through his passionate involvement in driving the CBC agenda.

"We sincerely appreciate his immense contribution in the presidential working party in domiciling our junior schools in primary schools. I thank him even more because when everybody was worried about the transition of Grade Eight to Grade Nine, he was able to work with headteachers to ensure the learners were settled in primary schools," Dr. Kipsang said.

Additionally, the PS revealed that before his death, Nzioka had agreed to bring together all chairpersons of school heads across the counties for a meeting with Education CS Julius Magoha, where further deliberations on implementing the transition from Grade 9 to Grade 10 were to be made.

"I can affirm that Nzioka did his part as a teacher and when we lost him, we lost an opportunity as a country to tap into his contribution to supporting the sector," he said.

Other leaders present, including KNUT SG Collins Oyuu, KICD's Charles Ong'ondo, and Machakos Governor Wavinya Ndeti, eulogized the late Nzioka as an outstanding leader who transformed the quality of education in the country.

Nzioka died in a grisly accident last week on Mombasa Road in Athi River. He is survived by his wife and two children.