The President has been urged to declare cancer a national disaster for more human and financial resources to be allocated to fighting the disease.
Ngewa MCA Karungo wa Thangwa said the move will curb ignorance about the disease, especially in rural areas.
Thangwa
said people in rural areas
lack sufficient information on cancer yet it claims nearly 80 lives a day .
"Many people only realise they have the disease when it is in its last stages. County and national governments should deal with the problem," he said.
He spoke
during a cancer training in
Mitahato village in Githunguri subcounty, Kiambu, on Thursday.
Thangwa added that such declaration will allow legislators to come up with laws that will help end the problem.
"Just like the HIV/Aids control boards and councils, there should be a cancer council independently tackling issues on the scourge. This will give room for early detection and treatment," he said.
Grace Wanjiku, a counsellor at a cancer foundation, said many families will become poor if interventions for early diagnosis are not pursued.
"The high cost of treatment is the reason for the high number of people dying from the disease. This can be curbed if cancer is detected early," she added.
Wanjiku said many women in rural areas have never been screened and end up going to local clinics which recommend wrong medicine.
"Most people run to local clinics which administer treatment without thorough check-ups," she said.
Wanjiku urged women to regularly screen for breast, cervical and uterine cancers.
MCAs in the county
unanimously passed a motion presented by Thangwa which compels the county to establish cancer centres in health facilities for diagnosis and treatment.