Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe met with the Head of mission at the Portuguese Embassy Luisa Maria Fragoso Monday to strike a bilateral deal that will see a boost in the health sector.
The deal comes at a time when President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration is racing against time to advance Universal Health Coverage (UHC), which is one of his Big Four Agenda.
“Kenya and Portugal have remained close, and the president’s intention is to entrench and expand the relations. The European Union (EU) remains a key multilateral partner while the individual member countries such as Portugal are key bilateral partners,” explained Kagwe.
Fragoso affirmed the already existing and functional ties in the health sector between the two nations.
“We have a Kenyan nutritionist working on a program aimed at the reduction of Marasmus in Portugal while we have a Portuguese working with KEMRI on tropical diseases, research which demonstrates that people already know what they need,” said Fragoso.
They both resolved to form a technical team that will research deeply on probable areas of collaboration that will be worked on to develop the field of medicine.
This will see a match up training and research for health experts in both countries in the areas of COVID-19 among other illness that require intense research.
“We should not forget that 90 percent of illnesses are diagnosed at primary care level and therefore those working in those areas need this exposure,” stated Kagwe.
The meeting between Kagwe and Fragoso came ahead of a planned visit to Kenya by Portuguese head of state Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa which will be the first such visit since the two nations established diplomatic relations 45 years ago.
