On the 11th of May 2023, Mr. Ken Okaniwa, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Embassy of Japan in Kenya visited Kinango Hospital, Kwale County which is the project site of joint collaborative research between NEC, KEMRI, and Nagasaki University. This research project is for the development of fingerprint technology for newborn babies. Mr. Hajime Iwama, Chief Representative of the JICA Kenya office, Mr. Kozo Watanabe, chief advisor for the technical cooperation project with KEMRI, Ms. Yume Yorita, and Mr. Nishimura, second secretary of the Embassy of Japan in Kenya, and Prof Elijah Songok, Director General of KEMRI also participated in this site visit. Before the site visit, the team had a courtesy call visit to the Kwale Government and discussed with Mrs. Govi Fatuma Achani, county director of health in Kwale and Mr. Kombo Cherema, the deputy county director of health in Kwale. Mr. Ken Okaniwa made a remark regarding the bilateral cooperation between Japan and Kenya, and also he explained about the long-term cooperation by Nagasaki University. The team was headed to Kinango Hospital and Dr Muuo, Principal Research Scientist in KEMRI, the coordinator of this research project explained the detail of the research project and Ms. Rukia, the field coordinator of this project demonstrated the verification of the fingerprint. Throughout the site visit, Mr. Ken Okaniwa mentioned “It was a great opportunity for us to be familiar with the project and understand its operation and modern technology. It is expected that the research project would be scaled up through the trial implemented in the other site and it hopes that this research project will contribute to improve the services delivery for health and to ensure the vaccination in the remote area”. This project was initiated in September 2022 and scaled up to Diani Health Center and Kwale sub-county Hospital and it wishes to improve the reproductive health services in Kenya.
