A week ago the world powers began a race to vaccinate Kenya as soon as possible. It is not so much the health situation in Nairobi and the surrounding area that is worrying, as the recovery of a nation that must reopen all its functions and possibilities as soon as possible, also to be able to repay the debts it incurred during the crisis with half the world.
Thus, after 182,400 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine arrived from France in recent days, donated by the Paris government to the Covax programme and transported by Unicef, Kenyan Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe announced yesterday that Kenya is to receive 1.7 million doses of Pfizer vaccine from the US government.
Although it is unclear when the doses will arrive in the country, the Ministry of Health revealed that talks between Kenya and the US government are at an advanced stage to ensure that the doses are delivered to the country as soon as possible.
This additional donation should be a major boost to the vaccination campaign in the country, which has been proceeding at too slow a pace since it began last March to cover at least 60 percent of the population by the target date of June 2022, as per Kenyatta's wishes.  To date, only 2 percent of Kenyans and residents have been fully immunised.
Speeding up the process is important so that all countries in the world can be at the same level in terms of vaccination coverage," confirmed Willis Akhwale, head of the Task Force for Vaccine Distribution in Kenya. "We are moving from the period when we experienced shortages to the period when we should have adequate doses.
The Covax programme, according to Ministry of Health sources, has already committed to distributing 13 million Johnson & Johnson doses starting next August. The donation will be part of the massive operation to vaccinate the African population, to which US President Joe Biden has given a strong push by promising 55 million doses.