Lodwar- October 27, 2025 (Public Communications and Media Relations)
At least 56 senior county and sub-county health management team leads from all 11 sub-counties — including Kakuma and Kalobeyei refugee settlements — have been trained on the implementation of Kenya’s new nationwide integrated vaccine introductions and switches.
This team entails medical officers of health, public health nurses, health promotion officers, and health record officers.
To intensify the fight against vaccine-preventable diseases and guided by new scientific evidence, the Ministry of Health is rolling out major updates to the routine immunization program in the 2025/2026 fiscal year.
These new introductions and schedule changes, set to take effect from November 3, 2025, are expected to improve resource efficiency and programmatic integration. Following the training, Big Catch-Up outreaches have been scheduled for November and December.
The updates include transition from the RTSS malaria vaccine to the R-21 formulation, alongside expansion of malaria vaccination to more sub-counties in malaria-endemic zones, introduction of a second dose of the Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) — revised from one to two doses, and revision of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine schedule from two doses to a single dose.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women in Kenya and a leading cause of cancer-related deaths. The HPV vaccine, first introduced in 2019 for 10-year-old girls, previously required two doses.
However, new WHO evidence confirms that a single-dose schedule provides equivalent protection, which will reduce missed opportunities and boost service delivery, especially given the current low coverage of 62% for the first dose and 30% for the second nationally.
“We need to continue advocating for and communicating with communities about the relevance of these immunization programmes, motivating them to come for immunizations as we continue to protect communities from vaccine preventable diseases,” said Gabriel Lopodo, County Director of Family Health.
Director Lopodo reiterated that the single-dose schedule is a game changer. “It means more girls can be reached with fewer resources, bringing us closer to the goal of eliminating cervical cancer,”
The ultimate goal aligns with the WHO’s global cervical cancer elimination strategy known as the 90-70-90 targets, which aim for 90% of girls vaccinated, 70% of women screened, and 90% of those diagnosed receiving treatment by 2030.
Kenya will also introduce a second dose of IPV (IPV2) into the routine schedule as part of the Polio Endgame Strategy, to strengthen population immunity ahead of the planned phase-out of oral polio vaccines. The new IPV2 dose will be given at nine months, alongside other childhood vaccines.
The Malaria Vaccine, launched in Kenya in September 2019 in Homa Bay County, currently follows a four-dose schedule at six, seven, nine, and 24 months. The Ministry now plans to scale up vaccination to more regions.
“Given new evidence, Turkana has recently been classified as a malaria-endemic zone. We hope to be in the next phase of the national malaria vaccine implementation,” explained Ruth Areman, County Health Promotions Coordinator. “This expansion is a crucial step toward closing that gap,”
Daniel Erus, the County EPI Focal Person, added, “Our teams are ready to ensure the community understands and embraces these updates. Strengthening immunization means strengthening the health of every child in Turkana,”
This two-day training was implemented by the County Government and the Ministry of Health, with support from UNICEF and UNOPS. It follows a North Rift Trainers of Trainers (ToT) workshop held in Eldoret last week. These trainees will now cascade the training to facility-based healthcare workers across the county.
During the training, it was highlighted that out of 264 operational public health facilities in Turkana, 235 of these facilities have cold chain equipment and are immunizing local populations, translating to approximately 89% cold chain coverage in Turkana.
The following sub-counties were listed as the best performing in terms of cold chain penetration, with Turkana West leading at 100%, followed by Turkana East at 94%, and Lokiriama at 92%.
According to Director Lopodo, over the last two years, we have almost doubled the number of immunizing facilities from about 130 to 235 facilities, with just 29 facilities left.
“The coverage of Cold Chain Equipment in Turkana West is critical to achieve high routine Immunization Coverage. Turkana West had reported a measles outbreak in 2022, attributed to sub-optimal immunization coverage and cross-border transmission of measles,” said Director Lopodo.
