The war against malaria has received a major boost after Mount Kenya University (MKU) launched a Ksh300-million lab in Thika. The institution’s Chairman, Board of Directors, Prof Simon Gicharu, is optimistic the cutting-edge molecular and immunology lab, named the Centre for Malaria Elimination, will deal the disease a fatal blow.
Prof Gicharu points out that research efforts at the university are already promising. Postdoctoral candidates and graduate students are conducting research on immunity against malaria in children and pregnant women. The MKU Chairman says he looks forward to the day research at the university will fully eliminate malaria.
Japan Ambassador to Kenya, Okaniwa Ken, officially launched the research facility, which is funded by his Government through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). He said the centre will support the global target of eliminating malaria by 2030.
Said the envoy: “It is disheartening that there are many people who suffer from the disease. It is a waste of human resources and a tragedy for families and the nation.”
The new lab is a key component of the Project for Interdisciplinary Research for Integrated Community-Directed Strategy for Sustainable Freedom from Malaria. It is implemented by MKU, Osaka Metropoolitan University, and Homa Bay County Government, and supported by Kenya’s ministries of health and education, and JICA.
Other Japanese institutions participating in the project include Nagasaki University, Tokyo Women’s Medical University, Tohoku University, and Ehime University.
Mr Okaniwa, who has visited the project’s research station in Homa Bay County, expressed his hope that, “the joint effort will be successful in eliminating malaria. The project is expected to lower severe malaria infection and deaths.”
MKU Pro-Chancellor, Dr Vincent Gaitho, has invited external researchers to use the facility to advance the fight against malaria. He says the Centre for Malaria Elimination is “a key step towards advancing scientific research and transforming healthcare in our society.”
Dr Gaitho says the research facility will serve as “an incubation for innovative centre for cutting-edge research, while also being a catalyst for collaboration, patents, interdisciplinary learning, and commercialisation of human health-related services and products.”
The collaborative malaria project’s lead researcher, MKU’s Dr Jesse Gitaka, says that other than malaria, the new research centre at the university will also target other infectious diseases of importance to Kenya and the region.
