The Nairobi City County Government has fully complied with the health and safety standards for City Hall casual workers.
This is after over 3,000 casual workers were vaccinated against Hepatitis B.
The casual workers are working in the Ng’arisha Jiji initiative in cleaning of Nairobi River and it’s tributaries together with unclogging of the drainage system across all 85 wards in Nairobi.
Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko said the move is aimed at preventing the casual workers from contracting communicable diseases.
“The casual workers are highly vulnerable to these diseases since they are most commonly spread by exposure to infected bodily fluid. We appreciate the efforts made by the workers in cleaning our rivers and unclogging our drainage system,” said Sonko.
Nairobi County Environment Executive Committee member Veska Kangogo, who supervised the mass vaccination exercise at Charter Hall yesterday, promised to ensure the county government continues to comply with occupational safety and health laws to ensure safety and health of casual workers.
“We want to promote a safe and healthy workplace by implementing effective systems for the prevention of occupational diseases,” she added.
Kangogo has also warned that no casual worker will be allowed to report to work without protective gears like gloves.
“We have now put in place strict safety conditions for our casual workers to ensure that none of our staff gets the dangerous diseases at their workplace,” Kangogo cautioned.
After the vaccination on Tuesday, the casual workers will get the second dose after one month.
The last dose will be administered after six months.
Celestine Achieng, 32, and Fredrick Okinda, both from Dandora, were among those who were vaccinated.
“I work mainly in Dandora area were we recovered over four bodies inside Nairobi River. We are so happy with the move by the Governor to offer us vaccination to protect us from diseases,” stated Okinda.
The Ng’arisha Jiji initiative has so far recovered several human bodies from the Nairobi River and its tributaries.
The bodies are suspected to have been dumped into the river by their killers.
City Hall, together with the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), have so far closed over 20 industrial firms for discharging toxic waste into the Nairobi River.
