Turkey and Hungary invests heavily in Kenya’s health sector
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Turkey and Hungary have partnered to offer health solutions to Kenya, in a bid to share experiences in public health, as well as technologies in health – with their Kenyan counterparts.
As a precursor, in a recently organised medical camp, the two countries organised a medical camp at the Kiambu General Hospital, north of Nairobi – organised by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA).
Under the coordination of TİKA, within the scope of the “Program to Support Kenyan Health Care Services”, the camp was carried out by a total of 81 health personnel, 15 of whom were Turkish, 5 were Hungarian and 61 were Kenyan.
About 1,000 oral and dental health examinations were conducted, 875 oral and dental operations, 2,000 eye screenings performed, 175 eye surgeries focusing especially on cataracts, 20 gynaecologic operations, 10 urologic operations, 35 paediatric operations, and 20 general surgery operations were performed. In addition, 75 emergencies were responded to and 175 medical students and general practitioners from Kenya were offered applied training.
The programme served approximately 4,500 people, as part of efforts to improve health care services in Kenya and increase the quality of life of the Kenyan populace.
Turkey’s First Lady Emine Erdoğan said, “This project marks a first as it involves a sharing of the health care related experiences of Turkey and Hungary with Africa. This successful experience, which showcases how effective a multi-lateral collaboration on health care can be, will undoubtedly be a source of inspiration for other projects.”
Hungary’s First Lady, Anita Herczegh, also supports the programme.
Through the activities performed jointly by Turkish, Hungarian and Kenyan doctors, the programme spurred the mutual sharing of experiences, and facilitated the transfer of knowledge –whilst additionally, allowing upcoming Kenyan doctors to gain vital experiences within their respective fields.
Turkey has committed to helping Kenya achieve its Vision 2030 objectives. Vision 2030 ascribes to Kenya’s goals of becoming a newly industrialised, middle-income country that provides a high quality of life – to all citizens in a clean and safe environment, by 2030.
In several meetings held in May 2018 in Turkey, which were attended by an array of Kenyan governmental representatives and the country’s Vision 2030 Secretariat -Turkey provided an avenue that sensitised the Kenyan delegation to their mega projects.
The first part of the 10-day trip involved visits to public institutions in Ankara, namely: Housing Development Administration TOKI, Small and Medium Industry Development Organisation KOSGEB, the Ministry of Development, and other sectors – where Turkey has a comparative advantage of skills and resources.
The TOKİ Presidency and important social housing projects in Ankara were visited in order to obtain information about savvy housing construction methods – aimed at mitigating high urbanisation levels. Therein, the Kenyan delegation found an opportunity to develop political relations and cooperation opportunities between the two countries.
The second part of the trip involved visits to mega projects in Istanbul. These included the Marmaray, M5 Uskudar Metro Station, as well as one of Turkey’s mega projects, the new IGA Airport, which is expected to be the largest airport in Europe, upon its rollout.
The delegation also held meetings with Turkey’s Foreign Economic Relations Board, DEIK Istanbul Development Agency and İSTKA. Leading the delegation, the Kenya Ministry of Planning Principal Secretary, Julius Monzi Muia – stated that these visits provided them with a great deal of experience and knowledge, and that the information they gained from the mega projects will be an important benchmark for improving Kenya’s infrastructure.
In this context, TIKA, which played a big role in the realisation of the visit, expressed their gratitude to all the Turkish officials who paid a visit to the projects for bilateral talks.
The visit came in conjunction with Kenya’s development charm offensive efforts, know as the ‘ Big 4 Agenda’. The Big 4 Agenda aims to provide food security, secure affordable housing, support the manufacturing sector to create employment opportunities and ascertain the provision of affordable health care services. Overall, The Big 4 Agenda aims to buttress the country’s ambitious Vision 2030 objective.
Source: African Strategic-Ventures (ASV) & The Exchange.
