Tanzania lifts yellow fever jab requirement

By Nick Oluoch

Kenya: Kenyans crossing over to Tanzania will not be forced to undergo yellow fever vaccination, Tanzanian Minister for East African Affairs Samuel Sitta has said.

Instructing Immigration Department officers at the Kenya-Tanzania border in Sirare, Sitta said the disease was not common enough  in Kenya to warrant vaccination.

“The World Health Organisation says only residents of countries with high levels of  yellow fever infections should undergo the vaccination and Kenya is not one of them,” he told the officers.

This was after Tanzania immigration officers informed him they had not received any circular stopping the same.

Those who have not received the vaccine are normally forced to part with Tsh30,000 when crossing the border. Kenyan officials led by Migori Goveror Okoth Obado and his deputy Mwita Mahanga had complained about Kenyans still being forced to undergo the vaccination at exorbitant prices by Tanzanian immigration officers.