NAIROBI — Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta who is also the chairman of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) on Wednesday endorsed the appointment of two special envoys to help hasten the fight against malaria on the continent.
The two nominees of ALMA, Anthony Okara (Kenya) and Sheila Tlou (Botswana) were endorsed and commissioned by Kenyatta in Nairobi during a virtual meeting convened to receive ALMA’s 2021 first and second quarter performance report.
“I congratulate the ALMA secretariat for keeping the fire burning in the fight against malaria despite the challenges brought about by COVID-19 pandemic,” Kenyatta said in a statement issued in Nairobi.
The Alliance is a coalition of African Heads of State and Government advancing advocacy efforts, resource mobilization and accountability in the fight against malaria across Africa.
As part of their broad mandate, the envoys have been tasked to work with the continent’s regional economic communities to prioritize the fight against malaria in their programming.
Kenyatta applauded ALMA for the progress made towards the establishment of a digital malaria repository for the continent saying the database will assist African nations to share best practices.
He expressed satisfaction that his stated agenda of digitization, adoption of country scorecards and the establishment of 15 multi-sectoral ‘End Malaria’ councils was on track.
He particularly commended ALMA for the growing involvement of Africa’s youth in the fight against the tropical disease and called for the establishment of a continental ‘youth army’ to boost anti-malaria efforts.
“We need to involve the youth to ensure we are able to keep our agenda of eradicating malaria on course despite the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
Kenyatta commended ALMA saying the organization’s efforts had led to the increasing adoption of anti-malaria scorecards by African nations.
The ALMA scorecard for accountability and action tracks malaria as well as reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and neglected tropical diseases indicators on the continent.
