Over half of inmates in Kenya are vaccinated against Covid, officials say
Launch of Covid-19 inoculation drive at the Naivasha Maximum Security Prison on September 28, 2021.
More than half of prisoners in Kenya have been vaccinated against Covid-19, officials said Wednesday.
The Commissioner-General of Prisons Wycliffe Ogallo said the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had helped prisons in the country tackle the virus by improving sanitation in facilities and providing medical equipment.
“More than half of inmates countrywide have received the Covid-19 jab, with Kamiti Maximum Prison having a successful vaccination rate of 80 per cent,” said Kenya Red Cross Society boss Asha Mohammed.
To fight the virus, 50 priority quarantine areas were constructed and supplied with materials for making of 800 bunk beds, 1,600 mattresses and personal protective equipment.
Last week, the Ministry of Health and the Kenya Prisons Service launched the first phase of a programme aimed at ensuring prison staff and inmates are vaccinated against Covid-19 in five days.
Speaking at the Naivasha Maximum Prison during the launch of the initiative, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the exercise would lay the ground for the resumption of family visitation for inmates in the country’s correctional facilities which had been suspended in March 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic struck.
“We are happy to contribute to a return to normalcy for inmates. They should be treated as other Kenyans,” the Health minister said.
