Amos Kareithi
2 September 2005
Nairobi — Pharmaceutical companies yesterday came under attack for taking herbs from Kenya to manufacture drugs, which they later sell exorbitantly.
Herbalists accused the multi-national companies of stealing their ideas by masquerading as researchers.
Senior Government officials attending the African Traditional Medicine seminar in Nyeri accused the companies of exploiting Kenyans.
An official from the Ministry of Gender, Culture and Social Services Gathoni Muya said some of the drugs manufactured by big pharmaceutical firms were made from juices extracted from local trees.
Assistant minister Alicen Chelaite supported her sentiments. Chelaite said Africans have been made to believe that traditional medicine is witchcraft.
She said in the developed countries herbal medicine was very expensive.
The meeting also focused on the role of traditional medicine in the search for an Aids cure.
Experts agreed that herbal medicine has been used to treat opportunistic infections associated with HIV/Aids.
Chelaite said she was aware that herbal drugs had the potential to cure Aids and asked herbalists to co-operate with manufacturers of conventional medicine.
A director with Kenya Medical Research Institute, Dr Geoffrey Rukungu, told alternative medicine practitioners to document their work.
In a speech read on his behalf, the director said some herbalists claimed that they had discovered a cure for Aids yet they could not provide data to support their claims.
He told the herbalists to take note of the viral load and CD 4 count of their patients before administering their drugs and afterwards.
He said the Government was willing to assist herbalists researching on a cure for Aids if they submitted their work to Kemri.
He said most herbalists do not talk about their projects fearing that they might lose their patent rights.
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