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 Penda Health, a Nairobi-based chain providing low-cost private
healthcare, has found a way to speed things up: bring the shots
closer to people's homes.
For many Kenyans, travelling to one of the big hospitals prioritised
as vaccine centres meant lost earnings to take time off work and
finding transport they could ill afford. So many didn't go.
But this week, dozens of people patiently queued up for a shot
outside Penda's Tassia Medical Centre, a clinic now delivering the
vaccine on their doorstep in one of Nairobi's poorer neighbourhoods.
"It's closer to my place. I have a son so it's more accessible. I
just walk a minute and I'm here," said Nancy Mwebi, 26, adding that
many of her friends had feared they would be charged for the doses
once they reached a big hospital.
With just 7% of people fully vaccinated across Africa and supplies
of vaccines improving, experts are urging African governments to
copy the kind of approach taken by Penda to improve take up across
the continent.
When Penda noticed many of its patients were unable to access
vaccines after doses began arriving in Kenya in March, it approached
the health ministry to set up a partnership.
But Penda, founded in 2012, still only offers shots in seven of its
21 clinics in Nairobi because of the expenses involved in rolling
out the programme.
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 The shots may be free but Penda
has to pay 240,000 Kenyan shillings ($2,100) for
World Health Organization-approved refrigerators
to store them and staffing costs to administer
the vaccine and keep records amount to $1,000
per clinic per month.
"It's a small price to pay to get this many
shots in arms, but on the other hand, it is very
challenging for the narrow margins we have at
our medical centres," said Penda's chief medical
officer Dr. Robert Korom.
Last week, Penda administered about three in
every 1,000 COVID vaccines given in Kenya, data
from Penda and the ministry of health showed.
"The ministry of health is aware that
vaccination needs to get to the last mile and
especially in villages and grassroots," Andrew
Mulwa, the ministry's acting director of medical
services, told Reuters.
He said partners, including private sector
players, were critical to achieve Kenya's target
of vaccinating the entire adult population by
the end of 2022.
($1 = 112.8 Kenyan shillings)
(Reporting by Maggie Fick; Editing by Katharine
Houreld and Edmund Blair)
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