Mandatory immunisation, is it legal in Uganda?

A health worker prepares to jab a man. PHOTO/COURTESY

What you need to know:

  • Why has the minister responsible for health taken more time than reasonable to regularize these “illegal” mandatory vaccination drives in the country?

There are many reports regarding the mandatory vaccination of people against coronavirus, but many wonder whether such a controversial and dislikable conduct is legal or not.

In the eyes of the current law in force, that is Act no. 7 of 2017, The Immunization Act, the long title provides that it is, “an Act to provide for compulsory immunization of children, women of reproductive age and other target groups against immunisable diseases; to establish the Immunisation Fund and to provide for other incidental matters.”

The immunisation Act is peculiar since it precedes nor repeals any law and that is why it is just like the Constitution, it is indeed “sui generis” meaning it is one of its kind in Uganda.

In Part II of the said Act, considering Section 3, which provides for compulsory immunisation of children, Under Section 3(1) A parent of a child in the age bracket of one day to five years must ensure that the child is immunized against Tuberculosis, Whooping Cough, Tetanus, Heamopillus influenza, Polio, Pneumococca 1 Congugate Vaccine (PCV 10) and any other immunisable disease that may emerge.

The child shall be issued with a vaccination card signed by the medical practitioner and it is the obligation of the parent to preserve this card for at least 15 years and further still, no daycare centre, pre-primary or primary school is allowed to admit the said child without the parent presenting the said immunisation card. 

Under Section 5(2), a parent of a girl aged between 15 and 18 years must also ensure that she is fully immunised against tetanus and a child from the age of 10 to 12 years should be immunised against human papilloma virus as provided for in Section 6 of the same Act.

The law uses a forceful term and penalizes the violators of the above provisions in Section 9 the perpetrators are liable on conviction to a sentence of a fine not exceeding Shs 240,000 or imprisonment not exceeding six months or both.

However, I like the fact that this law is alive to the fact that the medical practitioner has the authority to postpone the immunisation of a child on medical grounds under Section 3(2) of the Act, this provision speaks a lot on the issue of vaccine compatibility of the subjects to vaccination. 

It is undisputed that we are experiencing highway roadblocks with police officers under the commands from the RDCs, forcefully vaccinating Ugandans with Covid-19 vaccines. 

Whereas Section 10(b) of the Immunisation Act gives powers to the Minister responsible for health to pass a Statutory Instrument and order administration of vaccines in cases of an epidemic as the current coronavirus disease, it defeats a reasonable understanding that such conduct has not been regularised yet the said minister was quick to pass various Statutory Instruments in 2020, including S.I  No. 52 of 2020, The Public Health (Control of COVID-19) Rules, 2020 which commenced on the March 24 2020, the Public Health (Control of covid-19) (No. 2) Rules, 2020 which commenced on March 31 2020, S.I No. 83 of 2020, The Public Health (Control of covid-19) Rules, 2020 which commenced on June 23 2020 and S.I No. 94 of 2020, The Public Health (Control of covid-19) (Amendment) Rules, 2020 which commenced on the July 24 2020.

With this spirit, we are yet to have human rights defenders obtaining court orders and heavy penalties imposed against government at the expense of the tax payers, for instance, recently in our neighbourhood, Judge Antony Mrima had to suspend the order issued by the Kenyan government requiring proof of vaccination to access public services and it was considered by the court to be a gross violation to the constitution as it was utterly discriminative, that said, I believe that medical-wise, such insensitive conducts could affect a persons’ right to life given the various genetic inconsistencies demonstrated in different individual traits. 

In conclusion, it is clear that since there is no Statutory Instrument in place brought under the Immunization Act, 2017, it is illegal to compulsorily vaccinate travelers or commuters and the question remains as to why has the minister responsible for health taken more time than reasonable to regularize these “illegal” mandatory vaccination drives in the country?

Brian Tandeka,  [email protected]

(Lawyer) LLB Hons (MUK), Dip. LP (LDC) Legal Officer, LDC Legal Aid Clinic, Kabarole Branch