Two years ago, Grace (not her real name) fought stage 3 cervical cancer and conquered it. While undergoing treatment, her father, who had stomach cancer, lost the battle. The loss took her down, but with determination, she fought on. She is the third person in her immediate family to get cancer after her elder sister succumbed three years ago.
After undergoing several cycles of chemotherapy, doctors declared the 35-year-old cancer-free a year after diagnosis. "I was happy I had won over the disease. I even went back to my business," she said.
Mid-this year, as fate would have, while undergoing check-ups after developing some stomach pains, doctors gave her devastating news. The cancer had come back. “I was broken. I am still broken. If I would meet God I would ask him very many questions. Sometimes I even doubt there is a God,” she said when we visited her in hospital last month.
She was in pain and, according to her, the pain relievers she was getting from the hospital were no longer working on her.
On the side of her bed was a container with a few cookies. We would later learn they were weed cookies. "A friend of mine came to see me and found me in too much pain. During his next visit he brought me weed cookies and told me they help kill pain, which I can now confirm," Grace said.
For the one month Grace was in hospital, her friend sneaked in the cookies, something she says she highly appreciates.
When she left the hospital after a surgery and other sessions of chemotherapy, the pain exceeded and the cookies stopped working. "I learnt of cannabis oil, which the same friend sourced locally and I started using it," she said. Grace says she has an option of taking the oil as is or putting it in her meals.
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CALL FOR LEGALISATION
In July this year, the Kenya Revenue Authority seized 26 vape cartridges filled with cannabis oil and five one-gramme sachets of hashish at the JKIA in Nairobi.
Customs and Border Control Commissioner Julius Musyoki said the items had been hidden in a package of vitamin tablets, sent through a courier service provider and declared as candy.
“The drugs were seized by KRA Customs Enforcement Officers during a routine check,” he said in a statement.
Grace says before discovering the power of weed, she was getting relatively weak painkillers, considering the magnitude of cancer pain.
Grace, who has now graduated to smoking weed, hopes the drug can be legalised for medical use. “I have never imagined myself smoking bang, but pain drove me to it. This means it has a medicinal factor. I wish the government would take the suffering of cancer patients and others into consideration and decriminalise its use,” she said.
Grace has the backing of her husband, who sources for marijuana when the need arises. The two, who live in Nairobi's Dandora area, hopes to defeat the disease and go on building their young family. "I hope to one day get babies when all this is over," Grace said.
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TABLED IN PARLIAMENT
Cancer and HIV patients often spend their last days of life in severe pain, lacking the much-needed palliative care. This care is mostly given to terminally ill patients, where strong painkillers are administered along with symptom management, counselling and comfort for the patient.
According to Kenya Hospices and Palliative Care Association, 11 provincial hospitals across the country have now integrated palliative care services (Palliative Care Units). Over 220 healthcare providers have been trained, and approximately, over 30,000 patients have benefited from these services. Oral morphine is now available in the hospital palliative care units, according to the KEHPCA website.
As a success of the pilot project, KEHPCA is now working with the Health ministry to integrate palliative care services in 30 other county hospitals across the country, ensuring more availability and access to more patients.
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Most cancer patients are diagnosed while in the advanced stages of the disease and require palliative care. Even for those with early diagnosis, palliative care is important, since majority will not be able to either access or afford treatment aimed at cure.
Kibra MP Ken Okoth. /FILE
Two months ago, Kibra MP Ken Okoth hatched a proposal seeking to have marijuana decriminalised in Kenya.
In a letter to National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi, the lawmaker said amnesty measures should be instituted for the removal of criminal records against citizens with prior convictions of marijuana use.
“There should be a regulation for growth and safe use of marijuana and hemp, including the registration of growers, producers, and manufacturers.”
The MP urged the government to set up institutions of research and policy development on growth and use of marijuana and hemp for medical, industrial, textile and recreational purposes.
In 2015, the MP proposed that the government should stop wasting money on sugarcane farming and instead legalise marijuana.
According to him, marijuana is a very valuable commodity and has a ready market. He believes it will give Kenyans a lot of money.
"We should replace sugarcane growing with growing medical marijuana. Let us emancipate ourselves from mental slavery and start planting marijuana, legalise it, and tax it,” he said.
According to Nacada, one per cent of Kenyans aged 15 to 65 years are regular users of bhang, the most widely used narcotic drug in the country.
Last year, a petitioner seeking legalisation of marijuana said the plant can cure up to 6,077 medical conditions.
Ogot Gwada presented his petition to the Senate Health Committee, saying marijuana has not only huge medicinal benefits but also massive industrial use.
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CANCER ESCALATING
Despite campaigns and efforts to win the war on cancer, the situation has worsened over the years. There has been a near 20 per cent increase in cases diagnosed every year. According to data from the Health ministry, Kenya currently loses 90 people to cancer daily.
The disease now claims 69 per cent of its victims, translating to 32,900 deaths every year. This is 10 times more than the total deaths caused by road accidents. Some 3,000 Kenyans die in road carnage yearly.
The numbers paint a grim picture in the war on cancer. The disease ranks third on the list of top killers after pneumonia and malaria.
Kenya records 47,887 new cancer cases annually — about 130 daily. In 2012, when the last survey was published, 40,000 new cases and 27,000 deaths were recorded annually. The devastating figures were released a month ago by the World Health Organisation.
Breast cancer is responsible for the largest number of deaths, killing 23 per cent of its victims. Cervical cancer claims 20.5 per cent of its victims, prostrate 11.3 per cent, oesophagus 8.6 per cent and colorectal (colon or rectal) at 4.5 per cent.
This comes as cancer drugs for children run out at Kenyatta National Hospital, the biggest referral Hospital in East Africa. This is the fifth month the hospital is experiencing the shortage, putting the lives of children suffering cancer at risk.