By Azael Masese
Teachers in Bomet County affiliated to the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) have threatened to down their tools if a dispute pitting their insurer Aon Minet and Tenwek Mission Hospital is not solved.
Knut local Executive Secretary Joseph Malel Langat said the standoff has seen members forced to pay for the services even after their medical allowance is deducted to cover for the same.
“This has forced teachers to dig deeper in order to afford medical services since November, 2017 even after giving away our medical allowances,” Malel said.
In a letter addressed to Knut head office and copied to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and Tenwek Hospital, the Knut official said they will take the step if no tangible solution is forthcoming.
Mr Malel claims the dispute over payments between Aon Minet and Tenwek Hospital, is a development that worries Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion.
Following the stalemate over the payments, the hospital has stopped providing medical attention to the teachers in the region.
“We now demand for immediate resumption of services at Tenwek or TSC reinstates the Medical Allowances in our pay slips without which we shall have no option but to seek your intervention or indulgence as we take legal/industrial action at the county level,” the letter reads in part.
The Knut representative said that they have held an audience with the two institutions to solve the impasse to but all has been in vain.
“We have tried in vain to reach an amicable settlement in the dispute noting that the two have reached a stalemate after several rounds of talks,” he states. Both institutions, he states, bear responsibility for the suffering their members have been going through.
“Most importantly regardless of the reasons behind all this, innocent teachers are continuing to suffer and to the union, it paints us in a bad light as individuals and collectively as a union.”
Aon Kenya General Manager Mr Edwin Kegode acknowledged receipt of the letter and the need for service resumption at the facility.
