Kenyans Criticize Government For COVID Vaccine Offer To Diplomats

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Covid-19 vaccine
Covid-19 vaccine

Kenya has offered free COVID-19 vaccines to all diplomats in the country, including thousands of United Nations staff, even though it has not completed vaccinating its own health workers, other frontline staff or elderly, drawing ire from local medics.

Macharia Kamau, the foreign ministry’s principal secretary, said the shots being offered had been supplied via the World Health Organization (WHO) co-led COVAX vaccine access scheme.

“We need to protect everyone resident in Kenya. It just made sense not to reach out only to Kenyans but also to the international community here,” Kamau said.

He further said Kenya is the only United Nations capital headquarters in the global South and that this kind of honour comes with a certain responsibility.

An estimate of 25,000 to 30,000 diplomats, U.N. staff and family members live in Nairobi. Nairobi also hosts the U.N. headquarters in Africa. The U.N. Office at Nairobi (UNON) is one of four major sites worldwide, where many U.N. agencies such as the children’s agency UNICEF and others have large presences.

The Ministry of Health said that over 28,000 health workers, teachers and security personnel had received their first shots and that that it would set aside 400,000 vaccines for health staff and other essential workers.

However, Chibanzi Mwachonda, head of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union insisted that Kenyans should be given priority.

“I think the government should focus on getting the priority population vaccinated and achieving vaccine acceptancy with them before opening up to diplomats,” said Elizabeth Gitau, a Kenyan physician and the chief executive officer of the Kenya Medical Association (KMA).

Two Nairobi-based diplomats who declined to be identified confirmed their embassies had received the offer.

Covid-19 vaccine
Covid-19 vaccine

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