Kenya has taken up the chairmanship of the East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA-HC) from Zimbabwe for a period of three years.
In her acceptance speech at the 71st health ministers conference in Lesotho, Kenya’s Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha assured the region of Kenya’s willingness to uphold objectives of the inter-governmental health organizations body.
“As Kenya takes up this chairmanship, we keep in mind the objective for which ECSA-HC was established including the need to maintain the cooperation among member states for improvement of health services and implementation of activities that will contribute towards attainment of the highest possible standards of health,” she said.
She takes over from Zimbabwe’s Minister of Health under whose chairmanship the body waded the challenging period as countries grappled with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ms Nakhumicha highlighted that the 2010 Kenyan Constitution envisions attainment of highest standards of health for its citizens while access to quality, affordable and accessible health care for all Kenyans is one of the primary agenda of the Kenya Kwanza administration.
She assured the delegation of her commitment to work with everyone over the period of her tenure and to support the secretariat.
“I take note of various discussions and recommendations from the Advisory Committee and the best practice forum. As member states, we need to put this lessons learnt into practice, address challenges and strengthen our response to pandemics and public health emergencies,” she said.
Kenya is hopeful that the deliberations and recommendations from the health ministers’ meeting will be taken up across the region and will significantly contribute to strengthening of the region’s systems.
“I look forward to meeting you all during the 72nd Health Ministers Conference along the sidelines of 76th World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Switzerland,” said Ms Nakumicha.
The upcoming WHA meeting is scheduled for May 2023 and will be attended by delegations from all World Health Organisation (WHO) member states.
