The petition filed at the High Court in Kitui is anchored on an alleged conspiracy by the respondents to forcefully administer the vaccine to the learners, without the consent of their parents.
The petitioners are seeking compensation for the torture the children were taken through duriung the administration of the vaccine.
When Rebecca Muchira set out to administer a vaccine against Covid-19 on pupils at Kisungula Primary School in Kitui County on May 26 last year , she had no idea it would end being a court case.
A man and two learners at the school have since taken the clinical officer at Migwani Sub-County Hospital in Mwingi region to court in a constitutional petition which has roped in three teachers, the school’s board of management and the head of Migwani Hospital.
Others in the case are the Ministry of Interior, Teachers Service Commission, Kenya National Human Rights and Equality Commission, Ministry of Education, Child Welfare Society and the Attorney General.
The petition filed at the High Court in Kitui is anchored on an alleged conspiracy by the respondents to forcefully administer the vaccine to the learners, without the consent of their parents.
The first petitioner and his children— the second and third petitioners and who are identified as ENS and JMS in court documents— cite violation of human rights as enshrined in the Constitution.
Through lawyer Mercy Mutemi the petitioners have also alleged violation of Sections 2, 8 and 9 of the Health Act and Sections 8 and 16 of the Children Act.
The matter will be mentioned on February 20 for purposes of setting a hearing date for the petition, which could place the little known public school at the heart of Mwingi West Constituency in the national limelight.
According to court documents, the petitioners are seeking compensation for the torture the children were taken through duriung the administration of the vaccine.
The petitioners also want the court to pronounce itself on the need for treating children involved in medical procedures with dignity.
The teachers are said to have gathered the targeted learners in a hall at the school before the medic injected them.
“The respondents worked as a team. They chased and caught up with the learners who managed to escape and held them, so that the medic could forcefully administer the unknown substance with an injection,” reads part of the documents filed at the court and seen by the Nation.
A woman is inoculated with a Covid-19 vaccine at Oltepesi Dispensary in Kajiado, Kenya, on September 9, 2021.
Photo credit: Patrick Meinhardt | AFP
However, the respondents have denied the allegations. A short message allegedly sent by the Ministry of Health to the first petitioner through his phone within 24 hours after the alleged vaccination drive is among the materials listed as exhibits in the case.
The respondents claim that the second and third petitioners were injected with Pfizer, one of the vaccines the government had rolled out in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Through a sworn affidavit, the headteacher at the school-Francis Kanika mantained that the learners received a Covid-19 jab and that parents, including the wife of the first petitioner, had been informed of the vaccination drive beforehand. He also says the vaccination was voluntary and peaceful.
"We contend that the 3rd and 4th respondents did not in anyway violate the rights of the learners. To the contrary, the vaccination process was undertaken with the best interest of the learners in mind as contemplated in the Constitution," he says in the affidavit.
A medic administers a Covid-19 vaccine at Majengo Dispensary in Mombasa County in July.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Two days to the June 23, the supposed date for a second dose of the vaccine, the petitioners filed an application calling on the court to halt the school vaccination drive until the matter is heard and determined.
“Given that the substance is unknown and the initial administration caused severe side effects, the second dose could be fatal,” the first petitioner argued in court through his lawyers.
The petitioners won the first round of the case after Justice Robert Limo granted them their wish by issuing injunctive orders on June 25, 2023.
And on September 28, 2023, the court extended teh earlier orders prohibiting the administration of teh Covid jab to the learners.
“Upon hearing submissions by the counsels present, it is hereby ordered that pending the hearing and determination of this application, a temporary injunction restraining the respondents either by themselves, agents or servants from forcefully administering a second dose of the unknown substance on the second and third respondents be and is hereby issued,” Justice Limo ruled.
