• The President will be accompanied by Foreign Affairs CS Raychelle Omamo, Treasury CS Ukur Yatani and Ambassador to Ethiopia and AU Jean Kamau.
• The theme is: Building Resilience in Nutrition and Food Security on the African Continent: ‘Strengthen Agriculture, Accelerate Human Capital, Social and Economic Development’.
Image: MFA
President Uhuru Kenyatta will lead the Kenyan delegation to the 35th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on February 5-6.
At least 25 African Heads of State are expected to attend the summit, which will consider and adopt key reports.
They include a progress report on the African Leaders Malaria Alliance which will be presented by President Kenyatta in his capacity as the champion of ALMA.
“The ALMA report provides an update on the status of malaria on the African continent, progress towards targets set in the Catalytic Framework to end AIDS, TB and eliminate Malaria in Africa by 2030.
"The report will also include activities taken to mitigate the adverse impact of Covid-19 pandemic on malaria services,” Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Thursday.
The President will be accompanied by Foreign Affairs CS Raychelle Omamo, her Treasury counterpart Ukur Yatani and Ambassador to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the AU Jean Kamau.
The theme of the summit is: Building Resilience in Nutrition and Food Security on the African Continent: ‘Strengthen Agriculture, Accelerate the Human Capital, Social and Economic Development’.
This is the first physical summit since Covid-19 outbreak in 2020.
In the Executive Council, which preceded the Assembly on February 2-3, Kenya backed the development of the African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
Kenya also supported the inclusion of African candidates and candidatures to the international system and the inclusion of Kiswahili as one of the AU working languages.
“An African CDC is very critical, especially at this time, when the world is battling Covid-19 pandemic.
"It is critical to make it fit for purpose to not only be able to respond efficiently, effectively and on a timely manner to the prevailing pandemic but also any other disease outbreaks that may strike in the future.
“Kenya supports this noble initiate and the Cabinet Secretary affirmed this position in her statement during the discussion of the subject matter,” the Foreign Affairs said in the statement.
Omamo said it would be unrealistic to rule out an outbreak of another pandemic either regionally or globally.
“In order to be fully prepared to respond, we must ensure that Africa CDC is properly engineered to live up to its task and fit for purpose” Omamo said.
President Kenyatta will also present the AU Peace and Security Council Agenda for this month, in which Kenya is the Chair of the Month.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)