Finally Kenya gets a statutory cancer body to unify efforts
David Makumi is a member of the board of trustees of the National Cancer Institute-Kenya .
On the second day of this year, Cabinet Secretary for Health James Macharia gave Kenyans a quiet New Year’s gift by gazetting the board of trustees to run the National Cancer Institute of Kenya (NCI-K) as provided for in the Cancer Control and Prevention Act (2012).
It makes Kenya one of the very few countries in Africa to have cancer control legislation operationalised. We therefore had something to be proud of as we marked this year’s World Cancer Day on February 4.
World Cancer Day 2015 is aptly themed “Not beyond us.” This maxim holds true for us as a country. For it is not beyond us to prevent those cancers that are preventable; to treat those cancers that are treatable; to cure those cancers that are curable; and to provide palliative care to those patients who need it throughout the disease trajectory.
The board of trustees of the National Cancer Institute of Kenya has its work cut out. We are in a promising but challenging time for cancer care in Kenya.
Numerous cancer policy documents have been developed, we have a vibrant civil society cancer movement and counties have woken up to the reality of cancer with many planning to establish cancer centres.
All these worthy efforts need to be amalgamated under the NCI-K, whose role is defined in the Act as inter alia to co-ordinate the services provided in Kenya for the welfare of persons with cancer.
The institute will also provide strategic directions to the implementation of evidence-based practices for prevention, early detection, diagnosis, treatment, and palliation. This will help avoid duplication, and ensure cancer resources are distributed across the country in a systematic and equitable manner.
Private sector players have invested millions of shillings in cutting edge cancer infrastructure backed by international accreditation and highly trained experts; yet at the same time patients in the public sector are waiting a year for radiotherapy treatment while private cancer centres have idle capacity.
Perhaps the first assignment of the NCI-K is to come up with a framework for public private partnerships and financing models for cancer treatment to enable every Kenyan regardless of socio-economic background to access world class cancer care within our borders.
We are in a time when marketing of cancer treatment abroad (read India!) is verging on the unethical. Kenyans who can afford cancer treatment in India are flying out in droves, often against expert advice.
One way of addressing the capital flight occasioned by medical tourism is to invite some of the networks of cancer hospitals in India and elsewhere to come and invest in our counties.
Cancer is a complex and expensive disease whose tentacles touch every sector of the economy. Effective cancer control thus requires active involvement of all arms of government.
From the judiciary, which is expected to deal with cases involving institutions that fail to report cancer; to the legislature, which should enact more stringent anti-tobacco laws; to the executive, which needs to provide all necessary support to the nascent board.
Expectations will be high that all cancer management issues, especially its costs, will be addressed immediately with the implementation of the Act. These expectations have to be managed without dampening the optimism with which the Cabinet Secretary’s New Year and World Cancer Day gift was received.
The newly gazetted NCI-K board has a race against time to provide leadership to turn the tide against the pain (physical and financial) and deaths associated with cancer, drawing on the immense goodwill and support of ordinary Kenyans, corporates, religious organisations and the political class.
David Makumi is a member of the board of trustees of the National Cancer Institute-Kenya and the manager of the Cancer Programme at Aga Khan University Hospital. E-mail: [email protected]
