President Uhuru Kenyatta and First Lady Margaret Kenyatta have received their first dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccination at State House, Nairobi.
The live televised vaccination exercise also saw a handful of Cabinet ministers including Interior’s Fred Matiang’i and his Health Counterpart Mutahi Kagwe among other members of the executive vaccinated.
The President was inoculated at State House, Nairobi, together with members of his Cabinet and other senior government officials.
He received the jab immediately after addressing the Nation on the coronavirus situation in the country.
The exercise follows his order to all cabinet members to receive the jab to boost confidence in the vaccination exercise.
State House Chief of Staff Nzioka Waita made the announcement on Friday after receiving the jab.
“As the Government scales up the rollout of the national Covid-19 Vaccine program, H.E the President has directed his entire Cabinet & Executive Office to lead by example & get the jab! Received mine this morning under the watchful guidance of the Ministry of Health vaccination team,” said Waita on his Twitter page.
This was after the Ministry of Health announced the immediate prioritization of persons aged 58 years and above in the ongoing vaccination drive against Covid-19.
In a statement, Covid-19 vaccine development taskforce Chairman, Dr Willis Akhwale said the decision follows the revelation that this age group accounts for 60 percent of all recorded Covid-19 related deaths.
The government will now include about 6.8 million Kenyans who are 58 years or older to it’s list of high risk categories in the vaccination drive.
But even as the government appears to change its vaccination tack, questions linger on how many frontline workers have so far received the jab.
The Ministry further urged all political, religious and community leaders to take the vaccine so as to boost confidence in the overall vaccination process.
The first phase of the vaccination exercise is targeting 1.25 million frontline workers at a risk of infection.
