Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday made an appeal to African countries to continue working together in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond to be prepared to handle any future crises, reported CGTN Africa.
Kenyatta made the call during the 38th Session of the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee, which was held virtually on Tuesday.
“If we continue working together, we will enhance our capacity to handle future pandemics just as we are doing with COVID-19, and are managing to flatten the curve,” the Kenyan president said.
He said the coronavirus pandemic has taught the importance of unity to Africa, the continent which continues its efforts to contain the pandemic that has lasted more than one year, killing more than 128,000 people.
African countries have rallied together behind a proposal by India and South Africa calling for a waiver on vaccine patents which they claim would boost production of the life-saving vaccines.
In his speech, Kenyatta also noted that NEPAD, which was adopted in 2002 by the African Union as a continental socio-economic development framework, could be used to consolidate expertise and other resources needed to uplift Africa’s economy.
“NEPAD is an important tool that can help mobilize resources for the continent to enable it to achieve tremendous growth in all sectors,” the Kenyan president said.
He also mentioned the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) saying that its success will depend largely on increased intra-continental connectivity enabled by infrastructures such as roads, rail, and telecommunications.
Kenyatta called on African countries to prioritize infrastructural development to enhance the continent’s capacity to deal with its socio-economic challenges through trade, people-to-people interactions, and sustained economic growth.
Kenya has reported a total of 168, 925 confirmed positive cases and has conducted 1,787,093 cumulative tests so far. Kenyan health authorities have vaccinated 957,804 persons against the COVID-19 disease countrywide.
