President Uhuru Kenyatta has restructured the National AIDS Control Council (NACC) in a bid to bolster the health agency's structure and mandate.
In an executive order, the President renamed the NACC to the National Syndemic Disease Control Council (NSDCC) which will be mandated to cover other diseases other than HIV and Aids.
Other diseases under the management of the new body include malaria, lung diseases, and tuberculosis among others.
The key function of the council will be to develop policies for the prevention and control of syndemic diseases.
Additionally, they will mobilise resources for syndemic disease control and prevention and provide grants to implementing agencies.
"The agency will also ensure the accountability for the implementation of syndemic diseases programmes in the country," read the notice in part.
For continuity purposes, the President directed that all employees in the defunct NACC body will be absorbed into the new body.
"The council shall be a successor of the NACC existing immediately before the commencement of this order and all the rights’ duties, obligations, assets and liabilities of NACC at the commencement of the order shall be transferred to the council.
NACC was founded in 1999 in at the height of the increasing spread of HIV/AIDS in the country.
At the time the body was mainly tasked with coordinating the implementation of the government's response to HIV.
Currently, NACC data shows that there are 1,435,271 people living with HIV with 1,199,101 people on Antiretroviral therapy (ART).
These are some of the changes made by Uhuru before exiting office in the coming weeks. His tenure in office is dependent on the outcomes of the nine presidential petitions filed before the Supreme Court.
Uhuru is serving as the head of state under temporary incumbency with limited powers.