Today, Administrator Samantha Power visited Nairobi, Kenya, where she first met with the President of the Republic of Kenya, Dr. William Samoei Ruto. The two discussed the strength of the nearly 60 years of partnership between the United States and Kenya. They spoke about ways to deepen work together in areas of mutual interest like expanding primary health care, tackling food insecurity, and accelerating climate mitigation and adaptation, as well as how to stimulate greater private sector investment in Kenya.
Administrator Power, representatives of the Government of Kenya, Safaricom Plc, M-PESA Foundation, Vodafone Foundation, and USAID announced a new $18 million public-private partnership to bring the emergency transportation system m-mama to Kenya. M-mama uses mobile technology to connect pregnant women to appropriate care. Patients undergoing obstetric emergencies or their caregivers can call a free phone number where a nurse uses the m-mama app to triage whether transport is needed, and if so arranges for a nearby community driver or ambulance to transport her to the nearest appropriate health facility. After initial set up, m-mama will cost less each year on an ongoing basis than the cost of bringing five new ambulances into the system, and has the potential to cover 100 percent of emergency transport needs in rural areas.
Administrator Power also visited a level five hospital in Nairobi that offers comprehensive services to manage obstetric emergencies. She met with hospital staff and discussed the challenges they face providing emergency obstetric services for pregnant women, how those challenges relate to the emergency maternal health transportation ecosystem, and the prospective value of bringing m-mama to Kenya for these women and babies.
The Administrator then delivered remarks at the Africa Energy Forum, one of the premier annual conferences on the energy sector in sub-Saharan Africa. During her remarks, she celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the Power Africa initiative, underscoring its incredible achievements, including helping deliver new or improved electricity to 172 million people living and working in sub-Saharan Africa. In the last year alone, Power Africa has helped avoid almost 8 million tons of CO2 emissions - the equivalent to taking nearly every single car in Kenya off the road for an entire year. The Administrator announced an $89 million award to invest in clean energy in East and Central Africa that will mobilize billions of dollars of public and private investment and provide 50 million more people in the region with new or improved electricity over the next five years.
