Catholic school closed for blocking measles vaccination

A Nyeri Good Shepherd School pupil gets the measles-rubella vaccination at the school in Nyeri on May 17, 2016. PHOTO | JOSEPH KANYI | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Ministry of Education officials ordered Holy Family Primary School in Kibugu, Embu North, closed indefinitely so the pupils could be immunised at their homes.
  • Health officers who arrived at the school ready for the exercise were barred from accessing the pupils, with some teachers claiming that they had instructions from the Nguviu Parish not to allow the vaccination to take place in the school.

A Catholic Church-sponsored school in Embu has been closed down after its administrators barred health officials from administering the measles-rubella jab to pupils.

Ministry of Education officials ordered Holy Family Primary School in Kibugu, Embu North, closed indefinitely so the pupils could be immunised at their homes.

Embu North Director of Education Thomas Omwenga said the school confirmed the incident.

Health officers who arrived at the school ready for the exercise were barred from accessing the pupils, with some teachers claiming that they had instructions from the Nguviu Parish not to allow the vaccination to take place in the school.

Efforts by county Director of Health Joseph Kaniaru to get the school managers to allow the 150 pupils to be vaccinated failed.

Dr Kaniaru said the health officers also asked managers to allow the pupils to be vaccinated outside the school compound but they declined.

Mr Omwenga then sought reinforcement from the Embu North security team, including the OCPD and the deputy county commissioner but the school management remained adamant.

The officers’ pleas to some seminarians attached to the parish to allow the pupils to be vaccinated were also ignored.

A priest attached to the parish is said to have left, followed immediately by the school principal, leaving the health workers stranded.

It is then that Mr Omwenga closed the school indefinitely.

He said the day scholars were to leave the school on Thursday while boarders would vacate on Friday morning and stay away until the school implements the government’s directive.

Mr Omwenga said that all the other Catholic-sponsored schools had allowed the pupils to be vaccinated.

He said the pupils would resume classes after the school management ascertains that all the learners have been vaccinated against measles and rubella.

The measles and rubella vaccination campaign in Embu targeted about 200,000 children aged between nine months and 15 years.