The Bishops of Kenya have called for a general boycott of an upcoming vaccination campaign, saying that it should not go forward unless there is further scientific testing.
The vaccination campaign, which is sponsored by the World Health Organization and UNICEF, was scheduled to begin around the country on August 1. However, according to Fides, the bishops have called the vaccines’ safety into question after their requests for information and testing were denied.
Bishop Philip Anyolo of Homa Bay, who also serves as chairman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Kenya, addressed the bishops’ concerns during a recent press conference in Nairobi.
“We are not in conflict with the Ministry of Health, but we have an apostolic and moral duty to ensure Kenyans are getting safe vaccines,” he said.
This isn’t the first time that the Kenyan bishops’ conference and the government’s health ministry have found themselves at odds. The bishops stated that a neonatal tetanus vaccination campaign was a “disguised form of population control.” However, the government and the Bishops reached an agreement for testing before, during and after the vaccination campaigns.
“We are not fighting anybody,” said Cardinal John Njue of Nairobi. “We are only trying to prevent our people from suffering from external causes.”
