KEMRI ANNUAL SCIENTIFIC AND HEALTH CONFERENCE

Description

The 16th KASH Conference theme is on “The Future Of Health: Scientific Research, Innovations, Technologies and Manufacturing for a Resilient UHC”. The conference sub-themes will be anchored within the KEMRI research mandates on: One Health, NTDs and Vector-Borne Diseases, Climate Change and its environmental impact on health, Mental Health Traumas and NCDs (Non-Communicable Diseases), Infectious and Parasitic Disease Control, Nutrition and Food Security, Omics and Forensic Science, Innovations, Emerging Technologies, Vaccines and Product Development, Health Systems, Big Data and Digital Heath, Public Health and Disease Surveillance

Objectives

Presenters

1. Mr. KENNETH MWIGE
   DIRECTOR GENERAL, KENYA VISION 2030 DELIVERY SECRETARIAT Mr. Kenneth Mwige is the Director General of the Kenya Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat (VDS) and an accomplished public servant, legal professional, and policy expert with over three decades of experience spanning government, the private sector, regional institutions, and international development organizations. His career is marked by strategic leadership in national development planning, governance and ethics, legislative and policy reform, anti-corruption, international relations, and results-based public sector management. Education and Professional Training Mr. Mwige is an alumnus of Alliance High School. He holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from the University of Nairobi and a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from Downing College, University of Cambridge. He also possesses a Diploma in Legal Practice from the Kenya School of Law, a Certificate in Legislative Drafting from the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London, and a Certificate in International Trade and Transport Law from Lloyd’s Maritime Academy, London. Professional Experience Mr. Mwige has served in senior leadership, advisory, and statutory roles across key institutions, including the Office of the President, State Law Office, Kenya AntiCorruption Authority, Standard Chartered Bank, Law Society of Kenya, International Commission of Jurists (Kenya Chapter), Konrad Adenauer Foundation, and leading legal chambers in London. He has also held public offices such as Executive Director of the Public Complaints Standing Committee (Ombudsman), Secretary General of the Intergovernmental Standing Committee on Shipping, Gazetted Public Prosecutor for corruption offences, and Inaugural Chairman of the Embu Municipal Board. Key Achievements and National Contributions Mr. Mwige has played a pivotal role in shaping Kenya’s legislative, governance, and development architecture. His contributions include drafting and reforming constitutional amendments (2001–2003), public ethics and anti-corruption laws, banking and central bank legislation, public procurement frameworks, and leading the Marine Cargo Insurance localization policy implemented in 2017. As Director General of VDS, he provides strategic leadership for Kenya Vision 2030 implementation and delivery. His achievements include spearheading the VDS Transformation Strategy, VDS Strategic Plans (2018–2022 & 2023–2027), the Vision 2030 Scorecard (2008–2024) and mainstreaming knowledge management through documentation of the Vision 2030 Progress Reporting (2008-2024). Mr. Mwige spearheaded development of various government circulars inter-alia Flagship Programme and Project Identification Criteria issued as a Treasury Circular No. 01/2022, Head of Public Service Circular No. OP/CAB.39/1A on Synergized and Coordinated Government Communication and the Political Parties Manifesto Guidelines, 2022. He is currently working on, together with the State Department of Economic Planning, the post-Vision 2030 Long-Term Development Framework (Kenya @100). In Conclusion Mr. Mwige has also led coordinated national communication and stakeholder engagement on Vision 2030, advanced investment mobilization and private sector participation, and championed a performance-driven, ethical, and inclusive organizational culture, with strong emphasis on innovation, knowledge management, and people-centered. Mr. Mwige brings deep expertise in governance and ethics, anti-corruption, international relations and diplomacy, banking and financial regulation, maritime and blue economy affairs, international trade, and development policy. He is a strong advocate for institutional reform, technology-enabled public service delivery, and active citizen
   KENYA VISION 2030


2. Dr. Amy Pickering
   Dr. Pickering’s research has influenced the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) national guidelines on hand hygiene and on fomite transmission of SARS-CoV-2, and she has served on the World Health Organization expert panel that developed Global Community Hand Hygiene Guidelines. She has published >130 papers, received a Fulbright Fellowship, recognition as an ACS Environmental Au 2023 Rising Star in Environmental Research, Hellman Fellow, and NSF CAREER Awardee.my J. Pickering, Ph.D. is the Blum Center Distinguished Chair and Associate Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Pickering received her B.S. from Cornell University, M.S. from the University of California, Berkeley, and Ph.D. from Stanford University. Dr. Pickering’s lab leverages advanced tools in molecular microbiology to better understand how to interrupt environmental transmission pathways of enteric pathogens and drug resistant bacteria. Her lab also designs and evaluates novel water and sanitation
   Centre for Diseases Control


3. Dr. Daniel Masiga
   Dr. Daniel Masiga is a distinguished infectious diseases biologist and the Head of Human Health at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe). With an expert background in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Genomics, he directs high-impact research on disease vectors and pathogens, specifically targeting malaria, arboviruses, and Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). A leader in continental capacity building, Dr. Masiga is the Principal Investigator for ENEZA Data Science and the Eastern Africa Network for Bioinformatics Training (EANBiT). His previous leadership as co-PI of the THRiVE consortium and Past President of the African Society for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (ASBCB) was instrumental in shaping Africa’s bioinformatics landscape, including the development of H3ABioNet.He is currently Chair of the Kenya Ministry of Health Leishmaniasis Technical Advisory Group (TAG), and leads a Visceral Leishmaniasis (Kala-azar) mapping project, providing the spatial and temporal data necessary to drive elimination efforts in East Africa—the global epicenter of the disease. Dr. Masiga’s academic foundation includes degrees from the University of Nairobi, University College London, and the University of Bristol, followed by a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Glasgow. He continues to influence global research standards through his service on review panels for Wellcome, UKRI, and DAAD. He is a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences.
   ICIPE


4. Dr. Joseph Cavavalho, Jr
   Dr. Caravalho leads HJF as President and CEO, joining in 2017. In this role, Dr. Caravalho guides the strategic vision for HJF, its subsidiaries, and its global workforce in pursuit of its vital mission to advance military medicine. Prior to joining HJF, then MG (Dr.) Caravalho served as the Joint Staff Surgeon at the Pentagon in Washington, DC. He was the Chief Medical Adviser to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, providing recommendations to the Chairman, the Joint Staff, and Combatant Commanders on a wide range of medical and readiness issues. Before becoming Joint Staff Surgeon, he was Army Deputy Surgeon General and Deputy Commanding General (Support) of the US Army Medical Command. During his Army career, Dr. Caravalho held clinical positions as a staff internist, nuclear medicine physician, and cardiologist. For 38 years, he served the US Army in various leadership positions, including Commanding General of the Southern Regional Medical Command and Brooke Army Medical Center, the Northern Regional Medical Command, and the Army Medical Research and Materiel Command and Fort Detrick in Maryland. Dr. Caravalho graduated with a medical doctorate from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences School of Medicine in 1983. He also has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Gonzaga University and a master’s degree in strategic studies from the Army War College. In 2019 he received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Gonzaga University. Dr. Caravalho is currently a member of both the Wounded Warrior Project Board of Directors and the Gonzaga University Board of Trustees. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Association of the United States Army.
   HJF President and CEO


5. Dr. Ombeva Malande
   Ombeva Malande is a Vaccinologist and Paediatric Infectious Diseases Specialist. He is a Stanford Global Health Scholar, and a faculty member at Makerere University, Moi University, and Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, South Africa. Ombeva is the Director of the East Africa Centre for Vaccines and Immunization (ECAVI). He a member of the WHO Afro Regional Immunization Technical Advisory Group (RITAG). He has authored two books, supervised over 15 masters and 3 PhD students, has published 40 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and made over 150 expert presentations in local and international scientific meetings. He is a Rotarian who believes in Service Above Self. Ombeva is a respected poet, who for over 20 years has written award-winning poems for drama and music festivals for primary and high school children in Kenya. He is a weekly Columnist on Child Health with the Standard Media Group in Kenya.
   Standard Media Group


6. Prof. John Clemens
   Bio: Professor John Clemens is an infectious disease epidemiologist with over 30 years of experience designing, conducting, and analyzing large, population-based epidemiologic studies and vaccine field trials in low income countries and developing new methodologies for the clinical evaluation of vaccines. A graduate of Stanford (B.S.) and Yale (M.D.) Universities, Dr. Clemens is U.S.-Board Certified in Internal Medicine, and received his post-doctoral research training in clinical epidemiology at Yale. From 1983-88, he served as a research scientist at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), where he led the first efficacy trial of an oral vaccine against cholera (OCV), and where he conducted additional research on measles vaccine. After returning to the U.S., he served as Chief of the Epidemiology Section of the Center for Vaccine Development of the University of Maryland, and then as Chief of the Epidemiology Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, E U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). While at NIH he was the Director of the first WHO Collaborating Centre for Vaccine Evaluation in Developing Countries. In 1999 he became the first Director-General of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) in Korea. While at IVI he led the team that developed a killed OCV (Shanchol) that achieved licensure in India in 2009 and WHO prequalification in 2010 and was the first OCV to be included in the global OCV stockpile funded by Gavi. In 2011 he moved to UCLA to become the Founding Director of a new Center for Global Infectious Diseases, and from 2013-21 Dr Clemens served as the Executive Director of the icddr,b. He has worked as the Senior Scientific Advisor to the Director General of the IVI since 2021. Dr. Clemens is the author of over 500 peer-reviewed publications. He was the recipient of the 2010 Sabin Gold Medal and the 2018 Prince Mahidol Award in Public Health.
   IVI, SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA


7. Dr. Fredrick Sawe
   Bio: Dr. Fredrick Sawe is the Director of the Kenya Medical Research Institute/Walter Reed Project (KEMRI/WRP) Kericho site, responsible for all research and HIV/AIDS related prevention, care, and treatment activities in the South Rift Valley Province. Under the United States Military HIV Research Program (MHRP) and HJF Medical Research International (HJFMRI), Dr. Sawe has conducted several HIV/AIDS studies, including HIV vaccines, therapeutics, and cohort studies, double- blind, randomized controlled, IND/FDA-regulated, from phase I to III, US Division of AIDS (DAIDS) and non-DAIDS-sponsored studies. To date, the site has conducted over 80 studies—both HIV and non-HIV—spanning vaccines, therapeutics, cohorts, surveillance, public health evaluations, and health economics. These studies range from first-in-human trials to phase IV. Vaccine studies include a) HIV (4), b) Enteric Shigella (4), c) COVID-19 (2), and d) one each of Tuberculosis, Ebola, Yellow Fever, Polio, Typhoid, RSV, Hepatitis B, and MERS-CoV. The site enrolls participants of all ages, including pregnant women. Dr. Sawe has been/is a Co-chair, Principal Investigator (PI), and Associate Investigator on 4, 12, and 30 studies, respectively, that are either ongoing, about to start, or closed to follow-up. Shigella (controlled human infection). Dr. Sawe is the Clinical Research Site (CRS) leader for the KEMRI/ Walter Reed Project (WRP), Kericho, and Clinical Research Center (CRC) for the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), DAIDS: 1) AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG), 2) International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials (IMPAACT), 3) HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) and 4) Corona Vaccine and Prevention Network (COVPN). The studies conducted under these networks include HIV “remission/cure”, acute HIV infections in adults and neonates, Tuberculosis and HIV co-infections, cryptococcal meningitis, Kaposi’s sarcoma and immune reconstitution syndrome, evaluation of interventions to treat and prevent HIV infection and its consequences in infants, children, adolescents, and pregnant/postpartum women through the conduct of high-quality clinical trials. Since 2004, Dr. Sawe has also overseen the KEMRI/WRP South Rift Valley Province (SRV) United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)-funded comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment program, serving approximately 4 million people, 55,000 of them are on Antiretroviral Therapy.
   KEMRI/WRP