President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday, October 4, was showered with praises by two former African presidents over his Big Four Agenda.
Former Malawi President Joyce Banda and former Botswana head of state Festus Mogae were impressed by the blueprint that president Kenyatta had laid for the health sector in the country.
The two leaders who are among 'The Champions for an AIDS-Free Generation', are a distinguished group of former presidents and influential African leaders committed to an AIDS-free generation.
They individually and collectively, rally and support regional leaders towards ending the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat.
Uhuru, who reiterated Kenya's commitment to the achievement of an "AIDS-Free Generation”, called on African countries to allocate more local resources to the fight in order to bridge the financing gap occasioned by the dwindling external support.
“I want to reaffirm my personal commitment to this particular agenda,” President Kenyatta reiterated at State House, Nairobi.
They urged President Kenyatta, to continue rallying other Heads of States to show more political goodwill in the fight against HIV/AIDS on the continent.
Banda and Mogae congratulated the President for the various health sector reforms including the ongoing rollout of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
The two particularly requested Uhuru to spearhead efforts to make African nations allocate more local resources to the fight against HIV/AIDS, expand access to ARVs and other primary healthcare services.
“External assistance is declining and even where it is available it is in decline and it's covering fewer and fewer of the population on our continent. That means we have to try and do something about it including allocating more local resources,” Mogae stated.
The two leaders were also impressed by the Beyond Zero Initiative, a brainchild of the First Lady Margaret Kenyatta, championing maternal and child health care.
Banda stated that the first lady's sustained health campaign has contributed significantly to Kenya’s efforts to lower HIV/AIDS prevalence especially among mothers, children and the youth.
President Kenyatta explained that Kenya’s UHC plan was aimed at consolidating resources from local and international sources to ensure expanded access to primary health care including HIV/AIDS services.
He further announced that expanded access to primary healthcare especially preventive services would help slow down the spread of the viral disease.
President Kenyatta mentioned the campaign to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) by 2022, the various affirmative actions to empower women and girls as well as the growing budgetary allocations to health and education sectors as some of the other government interventions aimed at achieving the goal of an AIDS-free population.
The champions were accompanied to State House by Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki, Health PS Susan Mochache, UN Resident Coordinator in Kenya Siddharth Chatterjee and Amref Health Africa CEO Githinji Gitahi.
