The governance of traditional medicine and herbal remedies in the selected local markets of Western Kenya

Abstract

Background: A lot of emphasis is often placed on modern governance systems and little or no attention is given to traditional governance practices which remain largely undocumented. The study aimed at finding out important traditional and modern governance practices that regulate traditional medicine sector in Western Kenya. Materials and methods: The study was carried out in selected market centres of Western Kenya where the identified traditional medicine practitioners (TMPs) sell their traditional medicine. All consenting TMPs and professional experts were interviewed with the aid of a semi-structured questionnaire. Purposive sampling design with elements of snowball techniques was employed in tracing competent traditional medicine (TM) experts and relevant professional experts. The data collected was processed in Microsoft Excel and descriptive statistics performed. Pearson's chi-square statistics was carried out to determine the significance of the traditional and modern governance data sets using the STATA software. 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). Conclusions: Traditional governance practices play an important role in the governance of traditional medicine and are shaped by the socio-cultural beliefs of the local communities. Modern governance practices, on the other hand, are widely perceived as top downregulation of the traditional medicine growing industry.

Ethnobotany of traditional medicinal plants and associated indigenous knowledge in Dawuro Zone of Southwestern Ethiopia

“…To monitor the practice of traditional medicine needs the legalized system, special spaces, and procedures. This study is different from the report for western Kenya [ 21 ].…”

“…This enforces the knowledgeable persons to go away from traditional healthcare systems or distant places where not frequently contact with, consequently, to the loss of healing knowledge. This study result agrees with the report elsewhere in Ethiopia [ 10 ], reported to Jigjiga of eastern Ethiopia [ 45 ], for western Kenya [ 21 ], and elsewhere [ 71 , 72 ]. The traditional medicine practice has to get formal and legal ground as well as integrate with the modern system to serve the community.…”

“…This is a practice that they developed a very long time ago and the frequent practice for increasing frequency of customer visitation, not to lose their customers, to point out their ability of identifying the particular disease of the patient and being open to the modernized system of medication in traditional healing practice. The same report from a study undertaken in western Kenya [ 21 ] indicated that consumers usually choose traditional medicine because they share common traditional culture, beliefs, relationships, social life, and environment with the traditional medicine practitioners.…”

“…In India, traditional healthcare systems are relevant and aid within the treatment of chronic illnesses; China and Japan are on the forefront considering the mixing of traditional medicine into the primary healthcare system [ 21 ]. Within the African context, in Kenya, traditional medicine practitioners do not disclose to patients about their practice [ 21 ]. But in the study area, the traditional healing system is as yet not given legal ground.…”

Uso tradicional de especies de plantas en trece provincias de Ecuador

“…En la presente investigación el conocimiento tradicional de las plantas no varía significativamente respecto a la etnia y el género, y lo inverso ocurre en los rangos de edad. Chebii et al (2020) demuestra que las abuelas son las encargadas de enseñar las prácticas de la medicina tradicional a las nuevas generaciones en Kenia; en el estudio efectuado en Ecuador, son los padres, en particular las madres, los que desempeñan una función rectora en la transmisión generacional del saber etnobotánico. La literatura ratifica que en este sector imperan las mujeres en relación a los hombres (Lulekal et al, 2013;Ríos et al, 2017;Campos-Saldaña et al, 2018;Duque et al, 2018;Lara et al, 2019;Vinagre et al, 2019;Rosero-Gómez et al, 2020;Ribeiro Magno-Silva et al, 2020), y dentro del sector femenino la distribución del conocimiento y el aprendizaje etnobiológico no es homogénea; su cúmulo se incrementa con la edad (Rosero-Gómez et al, 2020), y está influenciada por el nivel educacional y posición social del individuo (Campos-Saldaña et al, 2018).…”