A new wave of controversy has been sparked between the Catholic Church officials and the Ministry of Health, over a vaccination exercise set to kick off on Saturday.
The church officials took the health ministry head-on, over a polio vaccine which they are demanding involvement in its testing to ensure it is safe.
Catholic bishops yesterday told a press conference in Westlands, Nairobi, that the testing of the vaccine should be carried out before, during and after the campaign, the Nation reports.
The clerics asked the ministry to postpone the polio vaccination campaign until they can assure kenyans of its safety.
According to a Citizen TV report, 6 million polio vaccines have been brought into the country by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF).
Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) Chairman Stephen Karanja argues that, the polio vaccines provided by the WHO and UNICEF, used in other countries, have been found to be contaminated.
The health ministry has, however, dismissed the suspicions urging the Catholic church to avoid spreading suspicion in the country,considering that cases of polio infections resurfaced in the country’s refugee camps, Citizen TV reports.
Health CS James Macharia maintains that the vaccination exercise is on.
This comes as a second vaccination row, this year, between the church and the health body.
Last year the Catholic Church opposed the tetanus vaccination campaign by the government, claiming that the vaccine had been laced with a birth control hormone.
The church officials questioned why the campaign was targeting only women of 14 to 49 years.
