NAIROBI, (AA): Kenya’s greatest enemy is corruption, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said Saturday as the country marked its republic day.

In his address to thousands of people at the Nyayo National Stadium in the Kenyan capital Nairobi to mark Jamhuri Day, Kenyatta asked Kenyans to fight corruption with the same tenacity that their forefathers used to fight for independence.

Jamhuri Day is the most important holiday in Kenyan calendar as it reminds Kenyans of the day that their country became a sovereign republic after gaining independence from Britain on Dec. 12, 1963.

“Today, we remember our forefathers who laid the foundation on which this nation rests; equally, we celebrate the youth who have inherited that nation,” Kenyatta said.

He claimed Kenya had become healthier since its independence. Life expectancy has risen from 48 years in 1963 to more than 60 in 2014. Also, in 1964, the country had no universities; but now it had more than 60, he said.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf also attended the celebrations at the stadium, where he thanked Kenyans for their help during his country’s fight against the deadly Ebola virus which claimed the lives of thousands of people in Africa.