KENYA TARGETS 60% LOCAL VACCINE PRODUCTION BY 2040 AS EXPERTS WARN OF RISING DRUG-RESISTANT INFECTIONS.
BY NJOKI KARANJA Nairobi, February 11, 2026. Kenya has set an ambitious goal to locally manufacture 60 percent of its vaccine needs by 2040, health officials announced during the second day of the 16th Kenya Association of Public Health (KASH) Conference. Speaking at a press briefing at Safari Park Hotel, Kenneth Mwige, Director General of the Kenya Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat, said the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the country’s heavy reliance on imported vaccines and underscored the urgency of building domestic manufacturing capacity. “We had a wonderful time this morning discussing the future of vaccines and Kenya’s and Africa’s preparedness to manufacture our own vaccines to the extent of 60 percent of imports by the year 2040,” Mwige said. He described vaccine self-sufficiency as a matter of national survival, recalling the inequities witnessed during the pandemic. “We all learned a very serious lesson in 2019, 2020, and 2021 when the COVID-19 epidemic hit the wo...