Thirty African parliamentarians have challenged Heads of State to make meaningful commitments to end tuberculosis (TB) in the continent.

The Nairobi Political Declaration on TB also urged the Heads of State to attend the forthcoming United Nations High-Level Meeting (UNHLM) on Tuberculosis in New York even as the disease in Kenya is a major public health concern.

About 120,000 people develop TB annually in Kenya – 48,000 of them being HIV-positive – and 18,600 people die from it. In 2019, TB was the sixth leading cause of death in Kenya, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

 “Globally, TB is the leading infectious cause of death and Africa carries about a quarter of the total global TB burden. As parliamentarians from Africa, we are glad that we have signed this declaration today and collectively, we shall be seeking to drive the political will to end TB in our respective countries,” said Stephen Mule, Head of the National TB Caucus of Kenya and Regional Co-Chair of Anglophone Africa after the signing of the Declaration.

He said that the regional joint declaration will further create a framework that stakeholders in Africa can adopt and utilise as a collective effort to end TB.

“We are confirming that the declaration will help African countries easily track the targets they have set in eradicating TB,” Mule said.

Amid concerns about the current status of intergovernmental talks on TB in New York, the ground-breaking Nairobi Declaration was signed during July’s “Future-proof: Africa TB Summit 2023” convened by the Global TB Caucus.

The Summits’ theme, “Future-proof”, is a popular term which means “unlikely to fail”, adopted by The Caucus with the spirit of ending TB once and for all.

The 2023 UNHLM on TB will take place during the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Week on Friday, 22nd September 2023.