By Robert Nyagah
Thousands of parents in Embu County have protested over the decision by the government to roll out a cancer immunization campaign targeting underage girls in primary schools without informing them or creating proper awareness on the campaign.
Girls aged 10 years returned home to report to their parents that they had been given the cancer jab at school to the surprise of their parents, most who wondered why the programme was not properly marketed.
“I was shocked when my Grade 4 daughter returned and reported to me that they had been given a cancer vaccination yet no information whatsoever was passed to us as parents even at committee level. What is happening in Kenya?” asked a concerned parent, Annie Kamau, who has daughters in the targeted vaccination age in two schools in Mbeti North.
The parents noted that although past records indicated some levels of awareness, this time the stakeholders failed miserably and actually found the parents and the children unprepared.
The cancer vaccination targeted children aged 10 years and above who are mostly in Grade 4.
Parents contacted by Education News said they were never consulted to provide consent for the health teams to administer the vaccination.
“There was no publicity carried out to market the vaccination programme and no word came from the administrators including Chiefs and their assistants, not even the community leaders or Nyumba Kumi elders,” lamented a parent from Gatondo Primary school.
Joyce Wambeti, another parent whose daughter ids aged 11, reported being surprised that such a programme could happen without proper publicity.
“I am a member of the school management team and was never informed about the vaccination,” Wambeti said.
Interestingly, campaigns against this malady also come with important publicity and guidance for the young given that as it is used in tandem with promotion of ways to avoid contracting STIs and HIV/AIDs.
Ironically, the government is quoted in a direction: “Adolescent vaccination is one of the strategies toward implementing the life-course immunization approach set out in the Immunization Agenda 2030. This approach expands the coverage of routine immunization to other age groups outside infancy and also seeks to improve coverage in under-served populations under the mantra “reaching everyone, everywhere.”
