Teachers Services Commission (TSC) and Kenya National Union of Teachers have each issued a statement on the state of COVID-19 vaccination for Kenya Teachers. Below is the update.

TSC on COVID-19 Vaccination among teachers  

A memo issued by TSC on 23 August 2021 indicates that TSC regional, county, and deputy directors should submit a list of all TSC employees (teachers) who were yet to receive the COVID-19 vaccine by 24 August 2021. The motive of the memo issued by TSC was to threaten teachers who had not taken the jab to take it. However, TSC has not provided any update on whether there will be any punishment for teachers who fail to be vaccinated.  

As of 14 August 2021, 178,734, teachers had been vaccinated with the first dose while 110, 342 had received the first and second done. TSC targets to have all 330,671 teachers that it employs vaccinated.  

KNUT on COVID-19 vaccination of teachers  

KNUT the other hand issued a statement on 23 August 2021 urging its members to get vaccinated. It however emphasized that teachers should willingly take the vaccination for their benefit. 

Why some teachers have not been vaccinated  

We reached out to some teachers to know why they have not been vaccinated and the response we got from them is that the closest hospitals either have long queues of people who want to be vaccinated or have run out of the vaccine. A few of the teachers who had not been vaccinated expressed fears of the future consequences of the vaccine.