The country’s Ministry of Health is set to launch a new digital immunisation records platform that will be used for COVID-19 vaccination. The platform, as revealed by the COVID-19 vaccine advisory taskforce chair Dr Willis Akhwale, is designed by the ministry of ICT and is fully owned by the Kenyan government.

Speaking to Nation in an interview, Dr Akhwale said, “We are still deliberating on what to call it, it’s 100% developed by the government with inputs and specifications from my task force.”

Kenyans will be able to conduct pre-registration on the platform. This means that people will be registered on the database after which users details are sent and a reminder is set as to when one should get the COVID-19 vaccine dose.

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During the vaccination process, all the records will be captured and stored on the platform. “After the first dose, the system will schedule you for your next dose and facility where you are supposed to go then again set a reminder,” the task force head highlighted.

Like other governmental systems, this one will require users to register using their official ID or passport numbers.

“When Huduma Namba comes it will also be considered but the main goal is to have a dependable, mobile-friendly and super-efficient system that will not only capture data both offline and online but also support the deployment of the vaccine throughout the country,” Dr Akhwale added.

The system’s demo version was presented to the task force on Thursday, February 19 with the chair saying they expect the to start training those who will be handling it next week.

When asked about the government’s expenditure on the development of this new system, Mr Akhwale declined to comment.

“The only thing remaining is the template the system will use to generate a certificate but that is being sorted then it should be ready in one or two weeks,” Mr Akhwale said.

As it stands, the country’s Health Ministry has recorded 103,000 COVID-19 infection cases with 85,391 recoveries and 1,801 unfortunate deaths.