The Health Ministry has cautioned Kenyans against waiting for the December 21 deadline to rush for their Covid-19 vaccines.
The ministry set December 21 as the deadline for which all Kenyans who will not have received the Covid jabs will not have access to government services.
The ministry has maintained that the directives issued more than two weeks ago will be implemented to the latter, adding that the exercise is not mandatory.
"We have set that deadline very clearly and a long time ago to say that if you want to get on the train, if you want to go to a restaurant, if you want to go to a government office, if you want to get onto a plane, if you want to leave Kenya, you will have to be vaccinated,” Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said.
“For that reason, we are telling Kenyans, don’t wait for the last moment let’s not do the usual thing of waiting until the last minute for you to start rushing for your vaccine, the best time is now, the best time is the hour that you have to go and get vaccinated,” he added.
The directives will see unvaccinated Kenyans denied services after the lapse of the deadline.
The services will include KRA services, education, immigration, hospital and prison visitations, NTSA and port services.
The ministry announced that Kenyans will also be required to provide proof of full vaccination when seeking transport services including domestic flights, the SGR and when boarding matatus and buses.
Similarly, drivers, conductors, boda boda riders, pilots and cabin crew will be required to be fully vaccinated and carry proof of vaccination at all times.
Effective the same date, anybody coming from outside Kenya will also need to be fully vaccinated to be allowed entry.
“We are not forcing any Kenyan to be vaccinated, it is not mandatory vaccination, if you don’t want to be vaccinated, that is fine with us but do not expect us to risk all other Kenyans who want to be vaccinated because of you,” he noted.
“You will be free to operate in a manner that you can. I am sure you will be quite creative in doing so but we cannot risk other Kenyans because of the fact that one or two people do not wish to be vaccinated.”
The measures will also require all businesses including small and medium enterprises with more than 50 people a day to put up signage requiring proof of vaccination before entry into the premises.
The patrons of these establishments are required to be fully vaccinated.
The vaccines supply in the country has continued to improve with the ministry receiving 4.6 million Covid-19 vaccine doses on Monday evening in yet another boost to the ongoing accelerated vaccination campaign.
The consignment included a donation of 4.3 million Johnson and Johnson vaccine doses from the German government via the COVAX facility and an additional 400,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses from Argentina.
The ministry has accelerated the vaccination campaign in an effort to reach at least 10 million before the end of December.
As of Sunday, a total of 7.5 million vaccines had so far been administered across the country out of whom 2.9 million people are fully vaccinated.
The proportion of the adult population fully vaccinated was at 10.8 per cent.