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The Health Ministry Cabinet Secretary has defended the directive to have Kenyans get fully vaccinated by December 21st after the High Court suspended it in the wake of a spike in the positivity rates of confirmed cases.
Speaking in Machakos County, Mutahi Kagwe welcomed the ruling until a case filed against the directive is heard and determined, saying nobody should be forced to get vaccinated, despite being a worldwide requirement.
“We have not issued any mandatory vaccination order, nobody will be forced in any manner or form to be vaccinated, that is not what the ministry intends, this is not only a Kenyan measure, it is all over the world,” he said.
He however stated that despite the fact that the people have a right not to be vaccinated, that decision should not expose other people to infections.
“If you want to go to court to say that you don’t want to be issued with a certificate to board let’s say the British Airways, you will still have to present for vaccination certificate before being allowed to board that airline, if you want to board the train or go by air, you will need the certificate but you will choose if you want to get vaccinated or not,” Kagwe insisted.
He added that his ministry will continue urging Kenyans to be vaccinated as it will alert the world that Kenya is a safe place in terms of Covid-19 infections, which in turn will boost the confidence of tourists and investors from the region or other countries.
The ruling also came as reported number of hospital admissions increased with almost 95 per cent of such admissions being from the vaccinated “and most of these are the Delta Variant,” said Kagwe, “no cases of the omicron variant have been spotted yet, although we are on high alert.”
Dr Mbira Gikonyo of the Covid-19 Taskforce at the Nairobi Hospital, said the facility’s positivity rate has risen from below two percent to above six percent with reports from their physicians that the infections were among the vaccinated and the fully vaccinated, mainly those who took their second jab over six months ago.
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