Tetanus vaccine made our women infertile- Raila Odinga

The National Super Alliance (NASA) presidential candidate Raila Odinga now claims that thousands of Kenyan women can no longer bear children after receiving a controversial tetanus jab in 2014 and 2015.

Citing laboratory results that appear to show that a hormone responsible for causing infertility was found in the blood of women who received the jabs, Odinga sided with Catholic bishops who waged a campaign against the vaccine back then that the Ministry of Health was administering tetanus vaccine contaminated with BHCG Hormone-a substance leading to infertility among the women.

Odinga offering as proof an alleged analysis of the samples which he claimed had been obtained from the laboratories of four organizations including Agriquest, Nairobi hospital, the University of Nairobi and Lancet Kenya, the documents appearing to show varying amounts of the hormone in individuals that were tested

“We are saying the Catholic Church was right. The tetanus vaccination was a targeted mass sterilization program. Thousands of women are now sterile unless measures to undo,” said Odinga.

In 2014 and 2015, as the government undertook a nationwide anti-tetanus drive targeting women aged between 15 and 49, Kenyan catholic leaders questioned the need for the program, arguing that there was no tetanus crisis in the country, further accusing the government of executing a sterilization program.

In order to resolve the impasse, the bishops and the ministry of health formed a joint commission which submitted samples of the vaccine for testing. Three out a total of 59 vials of the vaccine were found to have been contaminated by the hormone. However those vials, it later emerged, had been submitted by the bishops and opened earlier. In the midst of the controversy surrounding their claims, the catholic leaders maintained that over 500,000 women had been exposed to the vaccines.

Raila is now demanding that the government provide a list of all who were vaccinated during this period, while vowing to constitute a task force to look into the matter once he assumes office.

In a rejoinder, however, the Ministry of Health has refuted the allegations, terming it an old matter that was resolved through the joint tetanus vaccine testing committee which gave a clean bill of health to the tetanus vaccine.