Govt Launches Probe Into Tetanus Jab

Health Cabinet secretary James Macharia said the committee will address the concerns raised by the church.

The committee will be constituted this week.

The CS said the church did not understand the usefulness of the medicine and insisted that the tetanus jab will go on in all the counties in the country,

The CS was speaking to the press during the launch of the National polio vaccination campaign at Karagita slums in Naivasha.

He called on all Kenyans to support the vaccination saying that it would greatly help the lives and health of women in the country.

The Catholic Church has been opposed to the vaccination urging its followers to shun it as it had no medical backing.

On Polio, Macharia said that efforts were being made to eradicate it completely from Kenya just as it was the case with the Small pox.

He said the country had made significant strides in the vaccination adding that the last Polio case was reported in the country 15 months ago.

“During this round of vaccination we will be targeting 8.8M children of below five years of age country wide” he said.

He said that though the campaign has been smooth the ministry was faced with a myriad of challenges as some communities were still opposed to the vaccination.

Macharia lamented that insecurity in parts of the country was hindering the vaccination as some children could not be reached by officers from the ministry.

“We face stiff opposition from areas especially those inhabited by nomadic communities while our officers are not able to access some parts of the country due to insecurity” Macharia added.

He expressed concern that polio cases could come from neighboring countries saying time was high that the campaign stretched beyond the borders.

During the ceremony, nominated senator Harold Kipchumba said that senate was working on bills that would address the emergence of diseases such as polio.

Others who spoke were World Health Organization country representative Dr. Custodia Mandlhate among other senior ministry officials.

By Bonareri Samaha