The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) is in advanced plans to move all teachers to the newly established Public Officers’ Medical Scheme Fund under the Social Health Authority (SHA) by December 1, 2025, after the expiry of their current medical insurance cover provided by a consortium led by Minet Kenya.
The revelation was made by the acting CEO of the commission when she appeared before the National Assembly’s Committee on Education.
The current medical insurance scheme covers 415,000 teachers on the TSC payroll and their dependents. The contract is set to expire on November 30, 2025 and will therefore not be renewed.
“It is proposed that all teachers will be on-boarded to the Public Officers’ Medical Scheme Fund under the Social Health Authority (SHA) from December 1, 2025,” TSC acting chief executive Eveleen Mitei told the committee.
Ms Mitei, who was accompanied by the commission’s legal director, Calvin Ayuor, told legislators that discussions on transitioning teachers to SHA kicked off in May 2025 and roped in other government agencies. A technical working group was constituted, comprising the National Treasury, the Attorney-General, the National Police Service, and the SHA, to address technical issues, including the legal framework for the proposed scheme and budgetary requirements.
The legislators, however, raised concerns about teachers losing some of their benefits, the limited time available to develop the transition framework, and the onboarding of the teachers, given their huge numbers.
“This scheme that we are coming up with is more or less taking the structure of the scheme we are exiting. SHA has empanelled hospitals and the teachers will be free to go to hospitals of their choice,” said Mr Ayuor.
While assuring that teachers will not lose any benefits under the new scheme, Ms Mitei noted the commission was working around the clock to complete the envisaged framework by the end of September 2025.
“We are carrying our scheme as it is with concurrence from SHA, so what we are waiting for is the allocation of funds from the Treasury. We have already submitted the cost of our scheme,” she told the committee chaired by Tinderet MP Julius Melly.
Comprehensive medical insurance scheme
The revelation comes just days after a meeting of officials from teachers’ unions and associations at State House, Nairobi, where it was disclosed that teachers will benefit from a more comprehensive medical insurance scheme than the one currently provided by Minet Kenya. Teachers have been complaining about the quality of services under the cover and have called for a change of provider.
The Minet Kenya teachers’ medical cover is designed with a tiered structure that matches benefits to job groups, with chief principals enjoying the highest inpatient limit of up to Sh3 million, outpatient cover of Sh450,000, maternity cover of Sh300,000, and funeral benefits of a similar amount.
Senior teachers in secondary schools have access to inpatient cover of Sh1.3 million and outpatient benefits of Sh200,000, while primary school teachers in the entry grade benefit from inpatient cover of Sh1 million and outpatient cover of Sh150,000, among other provisions.
On whether stakeholders were involved in the decision to transition teachers to SHA, the TSC officials noted they have a roadmap for engaging all stakeholders. Ms Mitei said the commission is scheduled to meet officials of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) on Friday.
During the State House meeting on Saturday, President William Ruto announced that the TSC, the Ministry of Education, the teachers’ unions and head teachers’ associations would form a technical committee to review the scheme.
While the majority of Minet Kenya’s network of hospitals remain operational, some facilities were temporarily suspended following investigations into fraudulent or unethical practices.
There were also complaints of delays in pre-authorisation for outpatient cases (which was later scrapped), mandatory referral from Bliss Hospitals, and inadequate numbers of qualified doctors in most empanelled hospitals.
Prior to 2012, all teachers in public service used to earn a monthly medical allowance, but the amount was hardly enough to cater for medical expenses for the teachers and their dependents.
To address this, the government came up with a medical cover for all teachers, civil servants, and members of the disciplined forces instead of the earlier medical allowances. This led to the establishment of the medical insurance scheme for the teaching service.
