• Sale of herbal medicine in Kenya is not regulated and some dealers openly display their wares in the streets and hawk them on PSVs.
•Sexual enhancement drugs and those used to improve the body’s immunity are most popular.
Image: COURTESY
For decades little attention was paid to traditional medicine, but the state now plans to integrate traditional medicine into the country’s healthcare system.
That means herbalists can be regulated and their medicine studied and standardised.
It also means more Kenyans can have access to rich traditional knowledge as well as modern medicine. In some cases the two can be integrated and complement each other.
Research is already ongoing about using traditional herbal medicine to treat Covid-19.
The Health ministry has established a department to investigate the issue and make recommendations on integration.
"The herbalists are very active even as we speak. They started a long time ago and they are still continuing. I think it is an issue of formalisation and recognition of the role that herbal medicine plays in Kenya," Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said.
“We are also working with Kemri and other researchers in herbal medicines. We ask ourselves, maybe we shouldn’t be buying all these medicines, maybe they have got cures right here with us,” the CS added.
Three years ago, more than 30 illegal herbal outlets were shut in Nairobi following a raid.
During the 2019 raid, cartons of concoctions were seized by the officials and owners of the outlets arrested.
It emerged that desperate Kenyans are the most vulnerable to some unscrupulous herbalists, who lie to people they can cure diseases within weeks.
“A visit to Kamirithu herbal clinic in Ngara, Nairobi, led our officers to discover their manufacturing site in a rundown iron sheet godown at Kahawa Wendani,” PPB officer Dominic Kariuki said during the raid.
Sale of herbal medicine in Kenya is not regulated and some dealers openly displaying their wares on the street, some hawk them in public service vehicles.
Sexual enhancement drugs and those used to improve the body’s immunity are the most popular.
Image: MAGDALINE SAYA
In the last two decades, neglect of the sector has been replaced by renewed focus and a raft of policies and legislative changes.
Due to insufficient regulation, issues such as optimal production conditions, optimal dosage, storage and for which ailments the medicine can be used have not been addressed.
It's important that herbs be grown in a clean and safe environment, not near a smelting plant, for example.
However, traditional healers have been incorporated in some areas such as the treatment of snakebites as they are always the first contact point at the local level.
“We were conditioned to think the only proper cure is through pharmaceutical products and we forget we had medical knowledge before these things came alone," Kagwe said.
“Our researchers are working hard on these issues to see how we can complement and supplement the medical care system.
Image: MAGDALINE SAYA
Guidelines by the Pharmacy and Poisons Board for registration of herbal and complementary medicine are being drawn up to address issues on the quality of herbal and complementary medicines.
Herbalists have misconceptions about working with modern science.
Herbalists had thought the documentation required by the PPB was intended to steal their indigenous knowledge and thus, they have been hesitant to submit applications.
The regulations also seek to address unethical practices such as advertising of herbal and complementary products and peddling of products with no therapeutic benefits.
Other issues include unsubstantiated medicinal claims and herbal products whose toxicological profile is not known.
The World Health Organisation says traditional and complementary medicine is an important and often underestimated health resource with many applications.
They are especially useful in the prevention and management of lifestyle-related chronic diseases treatments for elderly patients.
The WHO in a report released in 2019 said in an ideal world, traditional medicine would be an option offered by a well-functioning, people-centred health systems that balances curative services with preventive care.
“Many countries are seeking to expand coverage of essential health services at a time when consumer expectations for care are rising, costs are soaring, and most budgets are either stagnant or being reduced,” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
(Edited by V. Graham)