The low vaccine uptake by medics and members of the public in the country has been caused by lack of leadership by the top government leadership according to parliament.
The parliamentary committee on communication, information and innovation has termed the failure by the President and the CS for Health to publicly take the vaccine as a major blow to the fight against Covid-19.
To this end, the committee has written to the Ministry of Health noting that Mp’s were on their part ready to lead from the front in getting the vaccine.
Since the vaccine arrived in the country, top leadership has given it a wide berth leading to apathy in its administrations with allegations of blood clot in some patients.
This emerged when members of the committee met various stakeholders in the information industry in Sawela Lodge in Naivasha to discuss the public relations management bill.
During a closed door meeting, the committee took issue with the Office of Government spokesman over the manner the government was handling the third wave of the pandemic.
The legislators noted that many hospitals had run out of ICU space with the government failing to support them leading to an increase in the number of deaths.
Addressing the press on the sidelines of the meeting, the committee chairman William Kisang noted that there was a challenge over how the government was dispensing information.
Flanked by members of the committee, Kisang noted that parliament through the parliamentary service commission (PSC) had requested for the vaccine for Mp’s and Senators.
“The government leadership has failed in leading Kenyans to get a jab of the vaccine but as parliament we are ready to lead from the front so that we can fight this pandemic,” he said.
The Marakwet West Mp noted that Kenyans were in darkness over the achievements made by the state mainly in food production, construction of houses and dams due to lack of information.
To this end, he said that the committee should lobby for more funds from the treasury towards the office of the government spokesperson.
“There is communication breakdown between the government and mwananchi and this can be addressed through an active website which will pass all the necessary information,” he said.
The government spokesperson Col. Cyrus Oguna who said he had taken a jab of the vaccine admitted that there was apathy in taking the vaccine at first but was quick to note that the numbers were on the rise.
“This is a new pandemic and a new vaccine with minimal information and this has caused the apathy which is normal among human beings but we are working on that,” he said.