Joseph Leshinga, a Maasai tribesperson living in a remote
part of Kenya, doesn’t trust outsiders coming to his village trying to
administer vaccines on him or his people.
Medical practitioners in Kenya are required to formally ask
those getting vaccinated who their next of kin is, a simple question that has
been enough to put Leshinga off taking the vaccine.
“To me, this means this vaccine cannot give you long life
and they know it. That is why they are asking us for our next of kin because
this vaccine is going to reduce your years of life,” he argues.
Leshinga who commands the respect of many of his
tribespeople, who have also refused to take a COVID-19 vaccine despite it being
offered free of charge by Kenya’s Ministry of Health from supplies donated by
the UK government.
In Africa, less than 2% of the population on the continent
of 1.3 billion people is fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Vaccine shortages continue to plague many African countries
and hospitals in Kenya are seeing more deaths due to COVID-19, but vaccine
hesitancy remains a major challenge facing many African countries.
Stephen Letipei, a clinical officer at one of the remote
health centres that cater to members of the Maasai community, says hesitancy
comes from Kenya’s colonial past.
“They believe that this is an indirect way of colonizing us
again by maybe controlling the birth of Kenyans,” he said.
More than 7.3 million cases, including more than 186,000
deaths, have been confirmed across the continent, and health systems are straining
to provide medical oxygen and other care.
If Africa continues to proceed at such a slow pace with its
vaccination programme, it could have the effect of prolonging the pandemic
internationally, especially in remote areas in Kenya’s Masaai land where
foreign tourists and Masaai interact.
0 comments:
Post a Comment