Teachers Service Commission(TSC) has warned teachers that they will face disciplinary action including missing their salary for August if they don’t get vaccinated.
The commission boss Nancy Macharia has given them a 7-day ultimatum to get the vaccine or face the consequences of defying that order.
Teachers are among the frontline workers that were prioritized to be vaccinated by the Government of Kenya but the uptake has been slow.
Only 33% of the teachers have been fully vaccinated which translates to a paltry 110,432 teachers against the targeted number of 330,671 in public schools and 115,000 in private schools.
Teachers are among the people that have been hit hard by the deadly coronavirus pandemic with the ministry of Education recording 549 cases of the virus with 81 fatalities among teachers.
The number might be more than that due to very many cases that go uncaptured in the official ministry of health reports.
The order given by Nancy Macharia comes few days after the similar order was given by the head of public service Joseph Kinyua who warned civil servants that vaccination was mandatory and not optional to them.
He warned that non-specified action will be taken against officers that will defy the order. Vaccination in the country has been slowed down by the inadequate numbers of doses available coupled with a lack of public health education on the vaccine.
There have been lies and myths peddled around social media regarding the safety of the vaccine. It is up to the Government to demystify those lies and assure all Kenyans that the vaccine is safe.
Kenya risks being isolated from other nations of the world due to the small numbers of people that have already been vaccinated.
Countries in Europe have high uptake levels due to the availability of vaccines and the literacy levels coupled with proper health education given to the people by the Ministry of Health.
