Kagwe: Why Sputnik vaccine was banned hours after Ruto, other leaders received doses

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Nominee Mutahi Kagwe has addressed claims regarding the Sputnik vaccine during his tenure as Health CS, clarifying that the vaccine was not approved for use in Kenya.

Speaking during his vetting at Parliament on Tuesday, Kagwe, who served as the Health Cabinet Secretary between February 2020 and October 2022 reaffirmed that all vaccines deployed in Kenya were approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

"There was no single vaccine that we allowed into Kenya that was not approved. Concurrently, there was no vaccine that was approved that we refused to take," said Kagwe in response to North Imenti MP Abdul Rahim Dawood's comments.

He went further to clarify the approval process saying that it was done by the National Emergency Response Committee (NERC) in which he was chair.

"Following the advice that we received from various stakeholders within the global health sector, we agreed as NERC that we would not use any vaccines that were not WHO-approved on the Kenyan people," he said.

The Sputnik V vaccine from Russia came under fire in Kenya during the pandemic after it was declared substandard and banned barely hours after then Deputy President, William Ruto received a dose.

Kagwe, however, maintained that the Ministry had actually stalled with Sputnik V awaiting WHO clearance before they could license them to operate in the country.

"When Russian officials came to lobby for Sputnik, we categorically told them that they would first have to go through WHO for approval before accessing the Kenyan market," he stated, adding that it was the only thing they could do to guarantee the safety of Kenyans in the face of multiple vaccine sources.

Kagwe's comments were however refuted by Daewood and Suna East MP Junet Mohamed who claimed the vaccine could not have found its way into Kenya without approval.

"Sputnik officials had verified approval from the Kenya Medical Practitioners Board. Moreover, 230,000 doses of this supposedly unapproved vaccine were administered to Kenyans," remarked Daewood. citing political interference.