By Pascal Mwandambo
After successfully completing the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination exercise, we all congregated at Simba Hall for our end of term meeting.
Top on the agenda was the issue about all teachers being vaccinated against Covid-19.
Despite the controversy surrounding the different types of vaccines being administered in the country, Obote, the Principal and several teachers were in agreement that the teaching fraternity, being front line workers, must be given the vaccine.
Only Napoleon appeared adamant, fearing that the side effects of the vaccine could have far reaching health implications.
Remember the other time he was forced to go into isolation after he reported to school with body temperatures reaching an all time high of 39.
No sooner was the plenary in session than Napoleon began lecturing us about the origin of Sputink V, saying it was one of the most efficient space crafts to make it into space.
Obote who has been very impatient with Napoleon since the temperature debacle, almost cut him short.
“Tell us the relevance of that history in relation to the matter at hand. As things stand now we are discussing a vaccine which is a serious health issue and not space science, unless you are trying to convince us to go for the vaccine by the same name”, the principal interjected.
Napoleon ate humble pie and admitted that so far Sputnik had been ranked the best in the world so we should opt for the same.
“Remember Russia is a superpower”, he went on.
Nobody paid attention to that statement.
Having agreed on Sputnik which even a leading national figure had reportedly being injected, we decided to troop to Mavumbi Referral Hospital as a team to show solidarity on matters vaccination.
Marashi was smiling broadly as if being vaccinated against Covid-19 would be a lifelong health cover.
However, not yours truly. If truth be told, I have never outlived my dislike for injections, especially those administered on the backside.
Years ago when I was a notorious young boy in the village, my mother knew that pretty well and once a doctors prescription was issued she had to make sure that I was kept within guard lest I fled from the precincts of the dispensary.
Many were the times that I would struggle to decipher the doctor’s prescription to see if I could detect anything remotely resembling the word “injection” so that I could flee.
Agony was that the doctors wrote prescriptions in a very cryptic manner and you only knew your fate when the morose nurse came out and announced “mama peleka mtoto kwa sindano”.
Anyway that is water under the bridge.
We arrived at Mavumbi Hospital and after consultations we were told that there was enough Sputnik V for all of us.
Marashi with all her kiherehere was the first to be vaccinated as I took the role of being her personal photographer, taking pictures that she would post on social media, most likely under the title “Covid-19 vaccine manenoz”.
The fact that the vaccine was being administered on the arm did not do much to lessen my dislike for the injection.
I remember one time a doctor almost slapped me hard for stiffening my muscles just when he had planted the needle into my skin. They say doing so hinders the medicine from flowing well into the system.
After I got my vaccine, something that startled me was that the instructions on the vaccine package was done purely in Russian which I could not translate.
I like reading labels because they say a lot about a product. I am still at sea on this matter.
As if that is not enough Sputnik V has reportedly being banned from my beloved country, leaving me wondering whether my next vaccine will be of a different brand. That could also raise issues of compatibility.
As they say time will tell.
