The Ministry of Health has named Mandera county as one of the counties that has the highest number of children who have not been vaccinated.
According to the health ministry, 33,696 children in Mandera County have not been vaccinated.
The health ministry said that there is need to create awareness on the importance of the vaccine to the children.
Mandera is followed by Kisii which has 30,000 children, Kakamega with 28,934, Nairobi has 27,278, Trans Nzoia (26,070), Kilifi (25,559), Narok (25,246), Bungoma (22,271), Homa Bay (19,833), Siaya (18,537) and Nandi (17,922).
Other counties with low vaccination rates are Lamu with 1,225, Embu with 3,062, Laikipia (4,240), Kirinyaga (4,300), Tharaka-Nithi (4,555) and Taita-Taveta (5,072).
Garissa, Isiolo, Marsabit, Wajir, Kiambu and Turkana did not provide their vaccination information to the health ministry.
The head of the Health Promotion Unit at the ministry, Dr Sammy Mahungu, said county governments are to blame for the high number of children not being vaccinated.
Dr Mahungu said county governments should make sure they conduct routine immunization adding that last year’s prolonged health workers’ strike was also to blame for the high number.
The repeated rounds of vaccination will increase the children’s immunity and enhance the ability to resist diseases such as polio, pneumonia, meningitis, measles, influenza and hepatitis, he added.
“Before devolution, immunisation in most parts of the country stood at 70 per cent. That means Kenya was almost hitting the 80 per cent target. After devolution, however, it has dropped to less than 50 per cent in most counties,” said Dr Mahungu.