Covid-19: Prisons boss launches vaccination of 28,000 officers – VIDEO
The Kenya Prisons Service (KPS) has started administering Covid-19 vaccine to its 28,000 prison officers.
Commissioner General of prisons Wycliffe Ogalo launched the exercise at the prisons headquarters on Tuesday as he received the vaccine to allay fears that it is harmful.
Ogalo said the access to the vaccine would not have been possible were it not a very robust partnership with both state and non-state actors.
The prisons will vaccinate 8,000 warders in the first phase before receiving more doses to vaccinate the entire workforce.
“Today we are grateful to have received from the Ministry of Health, Covid – 19 vaccines to vaccinate KPS personnel countrywide,” Ogalo said.
“To this end we recognise their enviable humanitarian act that has gone a long way in augmenting our zealous effort in fighting the novel global Coronavirus in our penal facilities,” he added.
To fast-track the process, Ogalo noted that the exercise will be supervised and administered by KPS healthcare personnel in the respective prison stations countrywide.
But the prisons boss urged officers not to relent in upholding preventive measures in use.
“I call upon all of us not to drop our guard. We must continue to practice the hygiene measures that we have learned to trust: keeping a safe distance, wearing our masks, washing and disinfecting our hands for that will keep us safe,” Ogalo said.