KEMRI Hosts High-level Bilateral Agreement Meeting between Kenya and UK

The Institute was chosen as the venue for a key bilateral agreement between Kenya and the United Kingdom last Wednesday, 20th, January, 2021 when the visiting UK Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth & Dev, the Rt. Hon. Dominic Raab and Kenya’s Minister for Health Hon. Mutahi Kagwe signed a collaborative Memorandum of Understanding

The highly publicized event witnessed by among others Ministry of Health Principal Secretary, Ms. Susan Mochache, Kenya’s High Commissioner to the UK, H.E. Manoah Esipisu, UK High Commissioner to Kenya, H.E. Jane Marriott, the Chairman, KEMRI Board of Management, Dr. Naphtali Agata and the Director General KEMRI, Prof. Yeri Kombe was held at the KEMRI Innovation and Technology Transfer Division.

Prior to the ceremony, the UK Minister sampled some of the Institute’s on-going research outputs especially those that are related to the COVID-19 policy positions, the Virus Transport Media (VTM) and an up-date on the COVID-19 vaccine initiatives.

He was also appraised on the longstanding cordial partnership between KEMRI and the UK-through a number of UK-based institutions such as the Wellcome Trust and Oxford University among others. This has facilitated support that has been key in research and capacity building initiatives that has not only benefited the country but also the entire African continet.

The six year old, Initiative to Develop African Research Leaders (IDeAL) which has trained over 1,000 individual trainees throughout Africa is an example of the success of this collaboration.

The collaboration has continued to support various program areas especially in building infrastructure such as the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Project (KWTRP) that integrates demographic & hospital surveillance, laboratory and clinical research platforms to facilitate tracking of health and diseases.