Vaccine expires at JKIA due to Government blunder

Tuesday December 29, 2020 -Media has unearthed another multimillion scandal at the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority KEMSA.

According to the Daily Nation December 29th, over 6 tonnes consignment of the vaccine has expired while at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport JKIA due to unnecessary clearance protocols in the country.

The publication informed that the vaccine has been lying in the cold at the airport for 3 years as the Sate went on dilly-dallying on clearing it away for human use.

6.1 tonnes of Pentavalent Vaccine which helps protect mothers and children against 5 potentially deadly diseases will now be disposed to the compost pit due to the Uhuru Kenyatta government’s blunder and carelessness.

Details on our desk also show that the vaccine arrived in the country’s Swissport Warehouses in 2017 and since then remained there for all that time as its clearance faced hurdles after another.

This means many Kenyans did not get the immunization against Haemophilus Infleunza type B – a bacteria that causes Meningitis, Pneumonia among many other illness including ear infections, Whooping Cough, Hepatitis etc.

Through a letter referenced ‘Collection and Disposal of Expired Vaccine at JKIA Swissport storage’ the management now want the space occupied by the drug to be freed for other functions.

“These are lifesaving vaccines that should be treated with urgency once they get into the country but because of bureaucracy by the clearing agency, we have to dispose of 6.1 tonnes of vaccines. Very unfortunate,” Drug Crime and Investigations head at PPB Dennis Otieno said in the long letter.

This development has thrown the country in limbo following continued in-fights at KEMSA, a body mandated to handle drugs in the country which has remained in tatters of graft and mismanagement.

That far, Kenya is also expecting Covid-19 vaccine to touch down in the country anytime in January so that everyone can receive a jab. America and other developed nations are already injecting the vaccine to its citizens.