By Milliam Murigi
Long before laboratories, pharmacies and modern hospitals, Kenyan communities turned to the plants around them for healing.
Knowledge of which leaves, roots and herbs could be used for particular ailments was passed from one generation to another.
Today, however, that knowledge is at a crossroads. Advocates want it documented, scientifically tested and transformed into home-grown medicines, while health officials are demanding stronger regulation to protect consumers from practitioners and products making unproven claims.
“The growing use of traditional medicine has renewed calls for Kenya to establish stronger systems for research, regulation, quality control and consumer protection while creating a pathway for indigenous knowledge to contribute to modern healthcare,” said Vitalice Ochieng of the Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health (TICAH).
Speaking during the commemoration of African Traditional Medicine Day at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) headquarters in Nairobi, Dr. Ouma Oluga. Principal Secretary, State Department for Medical Services, Ministry of Health said that the country must create a structured approach to the growing intersection between traditional and alternative medicine and conventional healthcare.
“The intersection between the use of traditional and alternative products and also the conventional products requires a structural entry point, and that is what we are doing here,” Dr. Oluga said.
He praised KEMRI for its continued efforts to advance research and the clinical application of traditional medicines, noting that the institution had received policy and regulatory direction during previous engagements.
Oluga said progress in research, policy and regulation must now be matched by systems that ensure products reaching consumers are safe, effective and used responsibly.
While traditional medicine remains widely used across Africa, experts say scientific evidence is needed to establish which remedies are safe and effective and which claims are unsupported.
But according to Ochieng, Kenya’s challenge is not only about regulating products already on the market. The country also needs to address delays in establishing the legal and policy framework that would regulate and develop the sector.
“A proposed Bill on traditional medicine has remained in the pipeline for years despite efforts by stakeholders to support the process,” he said.
He recalled organising a national stakeholders’ conference in 2022 to support public participation in the proposed legislation after the government cited lack of funds to undertake the process.
Stakeholders, Ochieng said, later supported efforts to advance the policy process, including engaging a consultant to help finalise the policy and developing a monitoring and evaluation framework. Yet years later, the process remains unfinished.
“The government need to provide a clear timeline for when Kenya will have a new policy and law governing traditional medicine,” he added.
The proposed legislation, Ochieng said, would establish a council with representation from government, traditional medicine practitioners and other stakeholders to oversee and regulate the sector.
Such a framework, would give the sector legitimacy while also creating mechanisms for accountability. But the absence of a comprehensive regulatory framework has also created room for quacks to exploit members of the public, particularly patients desperate for treatment.
Ochieng said some practitioners make exaggerated claims about their ability to treat multiple diseases, undermining public confidence in the entire traditional medicine sector.
“You will see them written all over, I can treat this, I can treat that,” he said, referring to people making claims about serious illnesses such as cancer, HIV and diabetes.
He argued that the government should not only focus on arresting practitioners but should also create a system that helps legitimate traditional medicine practitioners improve the quality and safety of their products and practices.
For Ochieng, one of the biggest opportunities lies in bringing traditional knowledge holders together with scientists. Traditional medicine knowledge is often inherited from parents and grandparents, but there is no reason why such knowledge should remain undocumented or untested.
A traditional medicine practitioner could work with a pharmacist, researcher or scientist to investigate a medicinal plant, establish its safety and effectiveness and determine whether it has potential for developing a Kenyan medicinal product.
“Why must it remain as raw as it is? Kenya needs to rethink the relationship between indigenous knowledge and modern science.”
According to Ochieng, the major weakness has been documentation. While other cultures documented their discoveries and built scientific knowledge around them, much African indigenous knowledge remained largely oral.
The result, a generations of Africans growing up viewing their own knowledge as inferior, particularly after colonial systems displaced and devalued indigenous knowledge systems.
Ochieng argues that Kenya should aspire to move beyond being a consumer of traditional medicines developed elsewhere and instead use its indigenous knowledge and biodiversity to develop products for local and international markets.
“Properly researched and regulated traditional medicine could potentially provide additional healthcare options, particularly for people who face barriers to accessing conventional healthcare,” he revealed.
According to Dr. Lydia K. Matoke, a herbalist and natural health specialist, even as the country does all these things they need to ensure that traditional knowledge is not exploited without benefiting the communities and individuals who have preserved it for generations.
This, she said, should include recognizing traditional medicine practitioners as custodians of indigenous knowledge and ensuring they are involved in decisions on how such knowledge is researched, developed and commercialized. Communities should also receive a fair share of the benefits arising from products developed from their traditional knowledge and biological resources.
“Stronger research and regulation should therefore go hand in hand with mechanisms that protect the intellectual property and rights of traditional knowledge holders, rather than allowing their knowledge to be extracted and commercialized without their consent or benefit,” she said.
