The Ministry of Interior and Coordination Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS), Winnie Guchu, has commended Kapsabet GK Prison in Nandi County for recording a 100 per cent vaccination against Covid-19.
Speaking at the Prison during a vaccination monitoring exercise, Guchu said it is encouraging that the GK Prison has vaccinated all its inmates, staff and their families, a move she said would protect the institution from possible mass infections by the pandemic.
Guchu said the prisons visitation can only be resumed when all inmates, staff members and their families have been vaccinated to ensure their safety.
“We don’t want to open-up the prison and bring in Covid-19, that’s why we are insisting on everybody within the correctional facilities to get vaccinated to guarantee the safety of our people,” he said.
The CAS noted that the Ministry is in liaison with the Ministry of Health to explore ways of safely opening-up prisons for the public while ensuring safety of everyone.
She said prisoners have not been visited by members of their families and this, off course, brings a lot of distress to the inmates.
“After all this monitoring drive in all prisons in Kenya, we will submit a Report to the Ministry of Health, so that we can see if we can get approval for opening-up the visits,” she pointed out.
Guchu who was accompanied by Nandi County Commissioner, Herman Shambi and County Executive Committee (CEC) Member for Health, Dr. Ruth Koech, revealed that the prison has over 100 people who are being attended to in quarantine.
The Nationwide vaccination drive for inmates, staff and their families was launched two weeks ago at the Naivasha Maximum Prison by Health Cabinet Secretary (CS), Mutahi Kagwe and his Interior counterpart, CS Fred Matiangi.
The vaccination drive aims to vaccinate over 50,000 inmates and also resume visitation to prisons facilities.
Dr. Koech said the County hailed the move to have vaccination in prison facilities and thanked the Kapsabet GK Prison administration for attaining the required 100 per cent vaccination rate.
Dr. Koech encouraged Nandi residents to take the cue and also avail themselves in large numbers and take the jab.
“We have received doses of Moderna and Johnson and Johnson at our hospitals and various vaccination centers. We request those who received the first jab to get the second for it to be effective,” she said.
By Kipruto Brian
