•The ministry did not however disclose the facilities on the DCI radar on grounds that it will compromise the operation that is already ongoing.
•Data from the Health Ministry shows that as at Wednesday, 471 people had received the second dose of the Astrazeneca vaccine
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations has moved in to investigate some facilities claimed to be illegally offering Covid-19 vaccines across the country.
This is after reports emerged that some facilities are now cashing in on Kenyans desperate for the vaccine to charge them for the dose, with some even advertising and claiming they offer Covid certificates for travel once vaccinated.
The Health Ministry has now called on members of the public to be vigilant and stay woke, adding that vaccines are to be administered only by authorized vaccination centres and are free of charge.
The ministry did not however disclose the facilities on the DCI radar on grounds that it will compromise the operation that is already ongoing.
“The DCI has moved in in some facilities that have been illegally vaccinating people for Covid-19 and charging them for that vaccination and I would like to tell Kenyans that such exercises that are going are illegal,” Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said.
The CS spoke on Thursday during the commissioning of a Clinical Waste Microwave equipment at the Kenyatta National Hospital.
“Chances are that you are not even being vaccinated with proper vaccines. There is every possibility that you are even being vaccinated with water and paying for it and therefore I want to warn the country and Kenyans at large first, vaccination in Kenya is free, nobody should be charging you for it,” he added.
Data from the Health Ministry shows that as at Wednesday, 471 people had received the second dose of the Astrazeneca vaccine, almost one week later after the exercise began on Friday.
From the number, 403 are healthcare workers, 26 are security officers, seven are people aged 58 years and above, one is a teacher and 26 are members of the public.
On the other hand, 971,243 people have received their jab, 294,628being people aged 58 years and above, 165,713 are health workers, 152,641 are teachers, 82,301 are security officers while the remaining 275,960 are members of the public.
“Nobody is authorized to vaccinate you except for those outlets that have been given authority by the Health Ministry and not only have they been given authority by the ministry they vaccinate for free,” Kagwe said.
The CS added: “We have seen in social media even people advertising, some of them even issuing fake certificates that presume that you can even use them to travel if you have been vaccinated.”
Healthcare workers and police officers or those in in the army aged above 50 years will be given priority in the ongoing second dose vaccine administration exercise.
The government rolled out the second dose of the Astra on Friday last week after the lapse of the 12 weeks waiting period as recommended by the World Health Organisation.
The CS has however maintained that doses coming into the country will be purely for giving the second dose, adding that Johnson and Johnson vaccine will be rolled out immediately it arrives into the country.
With just less than 200,000 doses available to administer the second dose, the government is giving priority to the healthcare workers and armed forces due to their high risk of contracting the virus based on the nature of their job.