The initiative by the government to kick out polio by immunising all children below five years is being met with rejection by some parents in Maseno.
Despite the big number of children who have got the vaccine, reports show that many more are yet to be immunised against the deadly paralysis causing disease.
Speaking to Joyce Abuka, one of the officers involved in the house-to-house immunisation exercise on Monday afternoon, she said that she had encountered parents who could not allow their children be immunised.
She mentioned that one of them said that it was against her religious believes to allow her children to be vaccinated.
“She said that it was only God who had the power to protect against illness, not a vaccine,” Abuka narrated.
Jane Waka, another immunisation officer, also said that she had also encountered a parent who said the vaccine is a birth control method and she couldn’t dare expose her children to it.
“I tried to ask from the mother where she had sourced the information from but she couldn’t explain,” said Waka.
Waka however, said that other reluctant parents eventually allowed their children to be immunised after lengthy lectures on the importance of the vaccine.
“We always explain to them that the vaccine does no harm to the children,” she said.
For adamant parents, Waka said they involve local administrators like the chief, their assistants and even the police.
She also says that sometimes they are compelled to use forceful means to ensure the children are immunized against polio.