• His Excellency the Ambassador of Republic of China
• Hon. Assistant Minister Ferdinand Waititu
• His Worship the Mayor
• Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Medical Services, Mary Ngari
• Distinguished Guests
• Ladies and Gentlemen;

I am delighted to visit Kayole-Embakasi for the official hand over and take over ceremony of Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital. The construction of this hospital is part of the government’s programme of modernizing and expanding health services to the people.

We are today witnessing the completion of a project that has been undertaken under the Ministry hospital reforms agenda. The new hospital is useful in health service delivery not only in Nairobi East District but also to entire residents of the city and its neighbouring counties.

The new hospital will enable us serve our people better. This has been made possible by the Chinese Government to whom we are grateful. As a Ministry we have worked together with the Chinese Embassy on this project and today I would like to say thank you for your support.

This hospital has a bed capacity of 112; it will offer specialized services for both outpatient and inpatient. I note with appreciation the timely completion of the construction of the hospital which only took 14 months at the cost of 544 million Kenya shillings.

The completion of this hospital should be seen as a step towards a cost-effective and sustainable integration of health services in Nairobi. This hospital with its surrounding facilities will serve more than 2 million people especially from Eastland’s and its surrounding.

Ladies and Gentlemen;

Many Kenyans are suffering from preventable diseases. As Ministries of Health we are responding urgently to the task of strengthening our primary and secondary health systems. This entails raising awareness of our people about various health issues such as use of clean water, immunization, family planning, nutrition and cleanliness in general, so that we can reduce the incidence of diseases.

As a Ministry we have prioritized these issues through Hospital Reforms Agenda in revamping our hold and dilapidated hospitals, health systems, commodity management.

Ladies and gentlemen;

The hospital will start immediately providing outpatient services, including inpatient paediatric services before end of August 2011. By December the hospital will offer maternity services and in 2012 the hospital will offer Theatre services, Medical Admissions and Surgical Admissions.

Finally, once again I want to thank the Government of the peoples of China for its contribution towards development of the country and especially in the health sector.

Thank you and God bless you!