Quest to integrate herbal and conventional medicine

LEGAL FRAMEWORK

MoH traditional medicine head Dr Pauline Duya said the commemoration of the day allows the country to showcase what traditional medicine is all about.

“It also gives us the platform to upscale matters of traditional medicine in Kenya and see how we can support this sector and practice to be where it needs to be and be at par with other countries that have developed it,” Duya said.

She said the ministry has been helping to develop policies to support the sector even though it is a work in progress.

“We have had drafts, discussions and most notably, if you look at our health law, we have a chapter that talks about traditional and alternative medicine in Kenya,” she said.

Duya said policies that will guide national and devolved units are being worked on to standardise traditional medicine.

She said the policies will also guide training, improving products and looking at referral mechanisms.

“We know that traditional medicines have been with us from time immemorial in this country, but the only challenge we have had is on standardisation and quality,” she said.

“We need that to be improved so that we can have more products that are registered by the Pharmacy and Poisons Board.”

Duya said Kenyans will then have products that are not only assured of quality but also efficacy and effectiveness.

She said the future is bright with the support of everybody.

“This is our medicine. We are not expecting so many other foreigners to properly help us,” Duya said.

“This is our thing and it allows us to develop our products. This sector is very rich in us getting new products that can be used in our essential medicine list once they are developed.”

NMK director general Prof Mary Gikungu says traditional medicine is important to the institution as it is part of Kenya’s cultural heritage (knowledge and practices), natural heritage (plants and microorganisms) and associated technologies for processing medicines.

“The knowledge and practice include the common use of herbs for prevention, treatment and palliative care,” she said in a speech read on her behalf by antiquities director Fredrick Manthi.

Gikungu says over the years, NMK has collaborated with indigenous and local communities to document, preserve and promote traditional medicine and medicinal plants through its various sections and departments.

These include the Centre for Biodiversity Department, Kenya Resource Centre for Indigenous Knowledge (Kenrik) Section and Phyto-chemistry Section.

Also, through the botany department, plants are identified and conserved.

“NMK has supported the use and preservation of traditional medicine through previous and ongoing projects and programmes,” she says.

“For example, community-based conservation of medicinal plants project, the network on traditional medicine and medicinal plants, capacity building in conservation of medicinal plants and now the cancer palliative care initiative.”

Dr Eliud Musotsi, the acting deputy director of research grants at National Research Fund, says funding research in the field of traditional medicine is key for the nation.

“There exists limited space where African traditional medicine knowledge can be passed to future generations,” he says.

“Hence research funding in African traditional medicine will offer an opportunity for knowledge co-creation and sharing.”

Musotsi says funding for research is still low as it currently stands at two per cent of GDP.

However, funding today stands at 0.04 per cent of GDP.