UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab has stated that the UK is assisting Kenya to prepare for the roll-out of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by British pharmaceutical company Astrazeneca and Oxford University, Reuters news agency reported on Wednesday.

Reportedly, Kenya has ordered 24 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and it expects delivery of the doses to start in the second week of February 2021.

Raab was quoted as telling a news conference during a visit to the Kenyan capital city Nairobi: "It is for us not just our moral duty, but in the British national interest to see Kenyans vaccinated just as soon as we physically, logistically can." He added that Britain has provided technical assistance to the Kenyan ministry of health to help prepare for the roll-out in Kenya to ensure it "gets to those who need it just as quickly as we physically possibly can", but did not offer any further details.

The Kenya state medical research institute (KEMRI) has been carrying out trials of the COVID-19 vaccine locally but it has not released the results of the study yet.

According to Kenya's Health Minister, the government has ordered the COVID-19 vaccines through an African Union initiative aimed at ensuring African nations are not left behind. There reportedly will be no imposition of the shots.

African countries will pay between USD3 and USD10 per vaccine dose to access 270 million COVID-19 shots secured this month by the African Union (AU), according to a draft briefing on the plan prepared by the African Export-Import Bank.

So far, Kenya has reported 99,308 cases of COVID-19 infection after 1.13 million tests. It has also reported 1,734 deaths.