The Ministry of Health is currently preparing space and refrigerators in Kajiado county to store the Covid-19 vaccine next year.
The first doses will be transported under tight securing from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to Kitengela on arrival next month.
Kitengela hosts the National Vaccine Depots.
From there, the vaccines will be redistributed across the regional storage centres across the country.
A team headed by Dr Willis Akwale is working on the infrastructure and logistics of handling the vaccines.
Health CS Mutahi Kagwe exudes confidence Kenya has a proper cold chain in place, having vaccinated against other diseases in the past, and ample storage space at the Kitengela depot.
The Covid-19 vaccination exercise next year, combined with the routine child immunisation, and expected mop-up campaigns for polio and measles, will be the biggest vaccination exercise in one year in Kenya’s history.
Kenya usually spends more than Sh7 billion every year to provide immunisation services, with at least Sh1.2 billion spent on vaccine procurement, with most costs already defrayed by the Global Alliance for Vaccines Initiative (Gavi).
From Kitengela the ministry normally sends vaccines to regional centres that are also equipped with refrigerators for temperature control.
The vaccines are given free of charge through a network of over 9,000 Public, Private, NGO and Faith-based health facilities.
Last year, former Health CS Sicily Kariuki undertook a large-scale improvement of the infrastructure, which is also supported by the Government of Japan.
“This year, the we have procured, distributed and installed 3,000 vaccine storage fridges at a cost of Sh1.8 billion, increasing the proportion of health facilities offering immunisation services from 65 per cent to more than 90 per cent in the country reducing the vaccine preventable diseases burden by 70 per cent, from the year 2000,” she noted on July 19 last year.
Yesterday, Gavi said, through the vaccine access facility Covax, Unicef, WHO, the World Bank, and other partners said they are working closely with all countries to prepare for the roll out.
Conditions that determine country readiness include regulatory preparedness as well as the availability of infrastructure, appropriate legal frameworks, training, and capacity, among other factors.
Dr John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said: “Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Africa CDC has established several trusted partnerships across the globe. The Covax partnership is one of such very critical alliances that will allow Africa to secure early access to Covid-19 vaccine needed to start vaccinating our populations across the continent.”