By CGTN Africa
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has urged the global community to remain focused on the fight against malaria despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The President, who is also the current Chairman of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), said it was unfortunate that COVID-19 had overshadowed all the efforts that had gone into fighting malaria.
“As a result, we have tended to forget that pandemics such as malaria are the greatest killers today in the African continent than COVID-19 is.
“Let us get our partners to understand that it is in the interest of everybody that we keep our eye on the ball. The fight against malaria, the fight against TB, and the fight against HIV/AIDs – these are all critical fights that will ensure that we are better placed not only to fight the current pandemics but also help us prepare against future pandemics,” the President said.
President Kenyatta spoke on Monday evening at State House, Nairobi in a virtual address to the End Malaria Council (EMC), a group of global public sector and business leaders that sees malaria eradication as a critical health and development priority.
EMC seeks to drive progress towards ending malaria by ensuring the eradication of the disease remains high on the global and regional agendas with strong political, financial, and technological commitment from leaders at all levels.
The meeting attended by EMC global members including former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, Microsoft Co-Founder, Bill Gates, Dangote Group CEO Aliko Dangote and WHO Ambassador for Global Strategy and Health Financing Ray Chambers, acknowledged the progress of President Kenyatta’s ALMA agenda in the fight against malaria.
