The governance of traditional medicine and herbal remedies in the selected local markets of Kenya
Authors: Chebii Willy Kibet , Muthee John Kaunga , Kiemo Karatu 
Published: January 2020

BackgroundA lot of emphasis has always been placed on modern governance systems and little or no attention is given to traditional governance practices which remain largely undocumented. This study aimed at finding out important traditional and modern governance practices that regulate traditional medicine sector. There is a growing demand for traditional medicine in urban settings in spite of its proximity to conventional health care centres and access to modern medicine. However, questions about their safety and efficacy still remain to be adequately addressed Materials and Methods The study was carried out in selected market centres in the Western part of Kenya where the identified traditional medicine practitioners sell their traditional medicine and treat patients who come for medication. All the identified Professional Experts upon attaining an oral prior informed consent were interviewed at their offices in Nairobi, Kenya. The market centres were located at Eldoret, Kitale, Moi’s Bridge, Makutano, Arror, Kakamega, Luanda and Yala which are actually spread out in eight different administrative counties. Purposive sampling design with elements of snow ball techniques were employed in tracing competent traditional medicine ‘experts’ and relevant professional experts. Interviews were conducted upon obtaining prior oral informed consents using semi structured questionnaires. The data collected was entered in Microsoft Excel where descriptive statistics namely, averages/mean, frequencies and percentage descriptive statistics were conducted. The Pearson’s Chi square statistics was performed on the traditional and modern governance data sets using the STATA software and data presented using tables, bar and column graphs. Results Modern governance practices were not significantly different in all the market centres surveyed (p=0.080). Equally, the traditional governance practices were also not significantly different in all the selected market centres (p=1.000). Most traditional medicine practitioners (65%) purely survived on traditional medicine as a source of livelihood with few practitioners (35%) selling beads, calabashes, tobacco and even sweets/candy alongside traditional medicine. There was low level of (27%) awareness on the existing laws and policies despite having high levels of compliance on county by-laws (100%) and payment of charged market fees (96%). Conclusions Traditional governance practices are as important as the modern governance practices and should receive heightened attention and interest both by the national and county systems of government. In most cases, the traditional governance practitioners determine eligibility for traditional medicine practice even before the practitioner acquires a formal certificate of recognition or registration. The traditional governance practices are closely guided by the socio-cultural beliefs of the local communities. Modern governance practices are often seen as top down regulation of the traditional medicine sector where the traditional medicine practitioners feel alienated from the making of laws that affect them directly. Good laws and policies are not enough, education awareness campaigns to increase awareness among the traditional medicine practitioners and gather feedback is much needed in order to meet their needs and aspirations and ultimately grow the traditional medicine sector.