Well as I said they’ve actually done a lot, collecting, documenting, and testing our traditional medicinal plants to make sure they’re safe and effective.The real challenge comes after that. Going from “this herb seems to work” to “we have a safe, standardized Kenyan medicine” is a long, bureaucratic, and expensive process. After discovery, you still need years of lab tests, clinical trials, toxicology studies, and approvals from bodies like the PPB all of which need serious funding, which we rarely prioritize.
On top of that, there are issues with intellectual property, weak collaboration between scientists and herbalists, limited industrial partnerships to scale production, and sometimes even hesitation from the government to fully support “local” remedies. A lot of that stems from the lingering colonial mindset that anything traditional is “unscientific.” So, a lot of great research just ends up sitting in reports and theses instead of being turned into real products.
Until Kenya builds a stronger link between traditional knowledge, research, and local pharmaceutical manufacturing, many promising discoveries will keep getting stuck in the lab. We already have the herbs, the data, and the experts, what’s missing is political will, proper funding, and confidence in our own knowledge systems.
Diabetes as been on the rise in Kenya, from 872,000 cases 10 years ago to 2.1 million people, or four percent of adults, in 2022.
harvardpublichealth.org
Herbal medical practitioners who fail to adhere to regulations set by KEMRI are likely to face a fine or a 3-year imprisonment.
kenyanwallstreet.com
Bill criminalises false claims about traditional remedies, with penalties of up to three years in jail or Sh3 million fines
www.the-star.co.ke