Health CS Sicily Kariuki during the Kenya Editors Guild meeting on December 3, 2019. /CFM.
NAIROBI, Kenya Dec 3 – Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki has urged the stakeholders and partners to join hands in providing lasting solutions to tackle climate change.
In a speech read on her behalf by Dr. Kepha Ombacho, the Director of Environmental Health during the opening of the 1st Health, Environmental and Climate change conference, the CS emphasized the importance of focusing on reality rather than theories to address climate change.
Kariuki said all the communicable diseases affecting a large percentage of the population in the country are associated with climate change.
“The achievement of Universal Health Coverage must go hand in hand with the drive to address climate change,” said Kariuki.
Gerald Yonga from Non-Communicable Diseases on the Global Agenda (NCD) Alliance Kenya and East Africa said over 70 percent of NCDs deaths occur in low-income countries due to lack of enough resources allocated for research, therefore it is important to come up with convenient ways to address pollution.
“More deaths occur due to climate and air pollution and continue to increase in Kenya,” said Yonga.
Yonga told the conference that health is one of the focus of agenda three of Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in most of the developing countries, therefore it is important to create solutions that work by encouraging them to use wind power, solar and hydro-power and to promote healthy lifestyles.
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