SPEECH BY THE FIRST LADY OF KENYA HER

EXCELLENCY, MARGARET KENYATTA DURING THE

3RD
EDITION
ANNUAL
FIRST
LADYS
HALF
MARATHON AT
NYAYO STADUIM ON MARCH 6TH 2016.
Fellow marathon runners, walkers and supporters,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Thank you all so much for being here! My special
appreciation goes to my sister Her Excellency Mrs Jeanette
Kagame, the First Lady of Rwanda for taking the time and
finding the energy to run with us today; we are truly
honored by her presence.
To all runners; whether you did 2km, 5km, 10km, or 21km,
whether you took 30 minutes or 3 hours, you have done
an absolutely fantastic job!
I want to especially thank those of you who have come out
to run every year for the last three years. That is an
amazing feat.
To the parents who brought out their children today, Im so
grateful for your support! As a mother, I can tell you that
our children are not too young to learn how to give and
how to share, how to serve and how to care.
To all the young people who ran today, well done! We are
so proud of you. You are an encouragement to us all.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Every single runner here is a champion. Because of you,
Kenya is that much closer to finishing first in the race to
zero preventable child deaths, zero maternal deaths and
zero new HIV cases.
Today, we have proved again that we have what it takes to
win that race. And we will win ittogether.

To the many, many corporate sponsors who made this

event possible - on behalf of thousands of Kenyan
mothers, please receive my sincere and heartfelt
gratitude. Thank you so much. Each year, I am
overwhelmed by the support, goodwill and generosity of
our corporate community towards this cause.
My gratitude goes to our media houses for your support in
raising awareness for this cause and to all our private
sector partners. Protecting our mothers, securing a future
for our children and advancing our health should be the
concern of each and every one of us.
Finally, thank you to county ambassadors for mobilising
their citizens and to the countless individuals,
philanthropists, civil society organisations and members of
our international family, who have donated their time,
energy, money and other resources towards this cause.
Today, we have collectively managed to raise money to
buy fully stocked mobile clinics for the remaining eleven
counties who were yet to receive them. We have already
established partnerships with 36 Counties to support the
stocking and refurbishment of existing Beyond Zero
mobile clinics. Because of you, all 47 counties will soon
have access to mobile clinics to support the health of their
residents.
Everyone here should be proud of that accomplishment;
that is your victory. But we are not done.
This campaign has taught me to believe in the impossible
things that can happen, when Kenyans come together for
good. That faith is stronger now than ever before. We
dont have to stop at mobile clinics. Together we can
transform our countrys health landscape. We can
refurbish health facilities in rural areas and we can build
fully fledged state of the art hospitals, across this country.
We dont have to stop, Ladies and Gentlemen, because
runners dont just aim to win, they aim to break records.
We can break records together. If we keep pushing, keep

running, keep going and keep giving, Kenya wont just win
this race, well do it in record time - before 2030.
Thank you all from the bottom of my heart and God bless
you.