SPEECH BY HER EXCELLENCY FIRST LADY MARGARET

KENYATTA DELIVERED AT THE LAUNCH OF THE KENYA

COUNTDOWN REPORT AT SAFARI PARK HOTEL, NAIROBI
28TH APRIL, 2016.

ON

Thank you Dr. Kioko for that kind introduction.

Princess Zahra Aga Khan, Members of the Diplomatic
Corps,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Aga Khan University, thank you for your invitation; I am

honoured to be part of the world-renowned work that
your Centre of Excellence for Women and Child
health is doing, to further the frontiers of modern
medicine-through research, and to safeguard the health of
women and children across Kenya, East Africa and the
entire region.
I am encouraged to be among socially minded businesses
represented in this room, who operate from the
understanding that investing in the future of human life,
will always prove profitable; it is a reminder to me that our
mothersfrom whom we came, and our childrenfor
whom we live and to whom we will leave our work and our
world, are a common factor that binds us together.
Today, we launch the Kenya Countdown to 2015
Country Case study, that will provide the much needed
data, to help policy makers, and stakeholders, with a
roadmap that will help accelerate and provide answers to
improve maternal and child health, as well as achieve
higher health national targets. Countdown to 2015 is a
global movement established in
2003 as a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional
collaboration, in response to a growing recognition that
achieving the health-related MDGs would demand radical

changes in scale and scope. Countdown tracks progress in

maternal, newborn & child health in the 75 highest burden
countries to promote action and accountability, and follow
through on commitments to the Global Strategy for
Womens and Childrens Health.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Through the Beyond Zero campaign which I launched in
2014 - 4 marathons and 2 years later, the campaign has
taught me one big lesson: the priceless power of positive
collaborationand I am so pleased to see that same kind
of collaboration at play here today.
Aga Khan University has made a mark as one of the
worlds leaders in maternal and child health research. Your
work provides our governments with essential evidencedbased analysis to be used for application and uptake
among practitioners and healthcare workers. It also builds
the capacity of health systems by educating specialists,
nurses, midwives and students learning in our universities.
I congratulate the Aga Khan University School of Nursing
and Midwifery in Nairobi for contributing towards the pool
of physicians in family medicine, obstetrics, gynecology,
pediatrics and child health; these are future leaders
joining in the fight to save the lives of women and
children.
I personally wish to appreciate Aga Khan Hospital as a
strong supporter and partner of the Beyond Zero initiative,
and the campaign against cervical, breast and prostate
cancer. Thank you for the 200 free radiation therapy
services offered as part of your contribution to the First
Lady's Half Marathon 2016.
Ladies and Gentlemen,

The success of collaborative efforts is again demonstrated

by the contributors, who worked with Aga Khan University,
to produce critical and timely health information like
SickKids Centre for Global Child Health of Toronto, the
University of Nairobi, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,
the Government of Canada, Family Care International, the
UN Family and the US fund.
This important forum has presented all of us as
stakeholders with an opportunity to reflect on the
challenges faced in achieving maternal and child health
targets, to refine our shared strategy for meeting those
goals, to celebrate the successes we have made, and to
renew our collective commitment to finishing this race
well.
As a global community, whenever we revive our
commitment to a cause, we bring energy, enthusiasm,
clarity of direction and a fierce sense of focus back on
boardour initiatives are injected with a new sense of
purpose.
Ladies and Gentlemen
Also a reality is our human nature to be, over time, easily
overtaken by lethargy, and lured into the dangerous lull of
inactivity. In those times, it takes fora like this to remind us
of whats important, and of whats at stake when we dont
give progress our biggest push.
Fortunately, there has been incredible progress both in
Kenya and across the world in decreasing maternal and
child mortality. But more remains to be done. It is deeply
encouraging that women are receiving better ante-natal
care today, than at any other time in history. The rate of
maternal and child mortality has decreased, and more
children are being immunised today, than at the turn of
the century. More work has also gone into educating
mothers on how to care for their children.

We must celebrate the success we as a country, as a

continent and as a world, have realised. Much has been
achieved, and our progress must inspire us to keep going
because the work is not yet done.
We must close- the- loop in healthcare, and seriously
address non-communicable diseases like cancer, diabetes
and high blood pressure that have taken over many lives
and families of our people. This month we celebrate World
Autism month; this condition is gaining prevalence in
Kenya and around the world. More investment is required
to improve early diagnosis of children born with
intellectual and physical challenges. More research, more
capacity building, and more support is required to better
equip our doctors, care givers and families who play a
huge supportive role.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
There is still far too much disparity, and inequity in access
to healthcare. There are still too many hurdles that some
women must leap to access the affordable care that is
their right. And there is still death. One death, in the
giving life, will always be one death too many. One childs
death, which could have been prevented, is a heartwrenching tragedy. It is a bleeding of the worlds potential,
hope and future.
Today, we have been reminded of that.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We have heard facts - we have figures. We must
remember that these numbers are peoples stories. We
must be moved once again to a pledge to stand together
to protect our mothers and to protect our children.

We have been presented with key actions which include:

health systems strengthening; scaling up of communitylevel interventions; deliberate health targets for marginal
poor populations; reducing of financial barriers,
governance and protection of vulnerable groups. These
actions must be our shared focus.
There is no doubt in my mind that we are close to the
finish line. It is now my pleasure to officially launch the
Kenya Countdown Report.
Thank you for your attention.