Speech by His Highness the Aga Khan at the Inauguration of the Heart and Cancer Centre at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya

25 July 2011 – Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim

Your Excellency President Mwai Kibaki, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces of the Republic of Kenya
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Honorable Uhuru Kenyatta
Minister for Medical Services, Honorable Professor Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o
Chief Executive Officer of Agence Francaise de Developpement, Mr. Zerah
Members of the Corps Diplomatic
Honorable Ministers, Your Excellencies

Chairman and Members of the Board of Trustees of the Aga Khan University
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen

I am enormously pleased to celebrate with all of you this benchmark moment in the evolution of the Aga Khan Development Network and the Aga Khan University.

I think of this as a “benchmark” because it signifies another step on a long pathway of medical advancement.

We can trace that pathway back a thousand years – to the great hospitals that were founded in Cairo by my ancestors, the Fatimid Imam-Caliphs of Egypt. More recently, we remember the founding – some 53 years ago – of the Aga Khan Hospital here in Nairobi. That event was part of the Platinum Jubilee of my late grandfather, Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah.

More at the source: http://www.akdn.org/Content/1057
Related Press Release: http://www.akdn.org/Content/1059