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Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has commended Africa’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the continent had outdone the rest of the world in that regard.

Kenyatta made the remarks at a webinar on Saturday evening on post COVID-19 reconstruction organised by the African chapter of the International Summit Council for Peace (ISCP-Africa).

“Africa has responded to COVID-19 much better than most other parts of the world, particularly when you consider its relatively weaker resource base,” he said.

“For a continent with 1.2 billion people, we have about 400,000 confirmed cases and just over 10,000 deaths. For comparison, that is about 15% of the cases in the United States and 7% of US deaths,” the President said.

ISCP is an international network of current and former Heads of State and Government who use dialogue to address global challenges among them climate change, conflict, poverty and corruption.

Kenyatta also took the opportunity to warn Africa against complacency in the fight against the disease. He noted that the pandemic was likely to worsen in the months ahead.

“We need to actively prepare for the looming crisis. Let me, however, hasten to add, that there is no room for complacency,” he cautioned.

By Sunday morning, Kenya had recorded a total of 7,577 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 159 deaths.

President Kenyatta’s government imposed a partial lockdown and a nationwide nighttime curfew since March in a bid to curb further spread of the disease.

In his address to ISCP-Africa, he urged African leaders to unite in the continent’s fight against COVID-19 to ensure success.

He also called for a strengthening of the continent’s health systems to better prepare it for any future health crises.