Agriculture CS nominee Mutahi Kagwe was taken to task over the decision by the government to ban the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine which was administered to President William Ruto in 2020.
During the vetting exercise in Parliament on Tuesday, January 14, Kagwe was asked to explain whether the decision he undertook as the then Health CS was political.
According to Imenti MP Abdul Rahim, the timing of the ban imposed on the Russian vaccine was questionable.
Other MPs also weighed in on the matter with Suna East MP Junet Mohamed questioning whether the ban was imposed because of the differences between former President Uhuru Kenyatta and Ruto.
Read More
"The vaccine arrived in Kenya with the approval of the government and it was administered to many people including the current president. It was not only when the then Deputy President took that that the regime stopped it," Junet stated.
On his part, Kagwe explained that the decision to ban the vaccine was informed by the lack of approval from the World Health Organization (WHO).
He reiterated that the decision was not political.
"There is no single vaccine that we allowed into Kenya that was not approved. The issue here is who approved it. We told them (the Russian people) to get approval from the World Health Organisation," Kagwe responded.
"We could only use a vaccine approved by the World Health Organisation."
