World Aids Day: Getting to Zero (1000 Days to go)

Today, we join the rest of the world in commemorating World Aids Day. Since 1996 the world has been coming together to consider the implications of this disease and to commit to dealing with all the pain that it has caused including loss of life, loss of quality of life, abuse, profiling and other forms of discrimination. In 1999, Kenya declared AIDs a national disaster and the National Aids Control Council was created to provide and facilitate a response to the pandemic. Since those years, we have come a long way both as a world, and as a nation. Today we, as a world, are closer than we have ever been to discovering a cure for this disease. Were so close: we can actually envision an AIDs free world; a world where there are zero new infections, zero aids related deaths and where there is zero discrimination and stigma surrounding aids. Theres good reason to be hopeful that well get to that goal; and that we, as a global community, will get to it by 2015 as planned. This year alone weve seen unprecedented advances. Earlier this year, we saw young people from around the world gather in Abuja and issue recommendations to the UNAIDS secretariat: ensuring that their voices will be heard in this battle against AIDs. Only days ago, Chief Executive Officers from some of the most powerful companies in the world, including Kenya Airways, signed a pledge urging governments to repeal laws that allow people to be deported, detained or denied entry solely on the basis of the fact that they are living with HIV. A new report by UNAIDS indicates that the rate of new HIV infections has reduced by 50% since last year. Between 2005 and 2011 AIDS related deaths decreased by 500,000 and Kenya saw over 70,000 fewer AIDS related deaths. Scientists continue to make progress in their search for a cure to AIDS. In East Africa the HIV and AIDS Prevention and Management Bill was passed earlier this year by the East Africa Legislative Assembly signaling our unified regional efforts to counter this disease. These are crucial milestones.

We celebrate not only their existence, but what theyve taught us along the way. In the journey towards an AIDs free; stigma free; increasingly just world one thing continues to remain clear. We must co-operate. There is no single nation that has had a monopoly of knowledge about how to win this fight. No group of people has gone this way before. There are no true precedents for what we are trying to achieveand none of us could have taken on the challenges of the last several years alone. Thats why we continue to mark World AIDs day as a global community, because we see the need to come together- across different sectors and disciplines; cultures and ethnicities, across geographical borders; political and gender divides - and do the right thing by the world and by each other. That unity is what has yielded fruits in the last year. Yet while the challenges may be surmountable, they are no less taunting and no less great- and thats true for Kenya as well. Within our nation: HIV still contributes to 20% of maternal deaths and 7% of all deaths in children under the age of 5, and our nation is still considered one of 22 priority countries identified in the global plan that focuses on women and children. Unfortunately, too many people still die at the hands of AIDs and there are those who still cannot access life-saving medication. I commend the present administration for providing all HIV positive women with lifelong Anti-Retroviral medication. This will go a long way in ensuring that fewer children are born with HIV. However in light of the long road we must travel, today, we must ensure that we have a more streamlined approach to pushing back AIDs. The 3 arms of government along with civil society and media must work together to ensure that all policies are implemented effectively. Health education must be a priority. The Government must continue to invest in ensuring that all citizens are able to access life saving medication regardless of their social standing or financial ability. We also need to work to ensure that each of us, on

an individual level, refrains from engaging in the kinds of counter-productive discriminatory practices that are a hindrance to our unity and our progress. The more we understand this disease, the more we know that many of those who fall prey to this disease- do so innocently. They are victims who must not be victimized again. Finally, today, I would like to acknowledge all those who are on the front lines in the fight against AIDs. The world is indebted to these individuals, non-governmental organizations and federal/national governments. Today, as Kenya re-asserts the commitment that it made last year to work with the rest of the world on this urgent matter and make the goal of no new HIV infections a national priority, I urge all Kenyans, everywhere: at home and abroad, to join the Government of Kenya as we resolve to work together for the sake of our fellow man and for the sake of our future. Weve come a long way together. Let us not grow faint. Yours in this struggle, Deputy Prime Minister; Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta.