Interns recruited under the Digital Literacy Program have called out the Ministry of Education over what they called unfair treatment.
In a letter addressed to the Ministry, the interns complained of among others delayed stipends and failure by the Ministry to remit deductions including the National Social Security Fund.
In the letter seen by The Kenya Times, the interns alleged that the Ministry had failed to pay stipends for the month of February which was the first month into the program.
According to them, the Ministry waited until they complained over the delayed stipends to act on their concerns.
At the time, they added, a person working in the Human Resource claimed that he was not aware that interns under the program were yet to receive their stipends.
Additionally, the interns claimed that the Ministry has not been remitting deductions to state bodies including the Kenya Revenue Authority and NSSF.
They noted that it took an incident where two interns were involved in an accident for the Ministry to finally remit the deductions.
“It is unfortunate that only after two interns were involved in an accident, and one of them lost their life, did the Ministry hurriedly remit two months’ worth of NHIF, but only after interns raised concerns,” the letter read in part.
Interns Complain of Disrespect from Ministry Officials
Further, the interns also complained of unfair treatment in their working environment.
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They accused the Ministry of ignoring their concerns citing cases where officials reportedly refused to respond to their issues.
“The Ministry has not effectively communicated with interns, except for sending individuals referred to as “Leads” who sometimes provide misleading information,” the letter read.
Likewise, the aggrieved interns raised concerns about failure by the Ministry to issue some of them with contract letters over nine months into their stints.
According to the interns, officials from the Ministry have been threatening to dismiss individuals who raise concerns affecting them.
Consequently, the cohort in their letter called for expedited action to address their grievances and called upon the agencies involved to collaborate in doing so.
The interns are part of the cohort recruited to roll out the Digital Literacy Program (DLP) in February.
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Notably, 1,000 of these interns would help schoolteachers on the use of digital literacy devices and help to drive innovations to boost digital learning in various schools.
In addition, the interns were entitled to a monthly stipend in their one-year stint working under the Ministry of Education.
The Ministry was however yet to respond to the allegations.
