Why national cancer institute is unable to fight cancer

The body mandated to oversee all activities concerning cancer has revealed hardships it undergoes to coordinate efforts to manage what Kenyans now describe as a national disaster.

A report presented before the National Assembly committee in charge of health details how the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is incapacitated to take up its role.

The biggest of all challenges is that the institute is not in charge of the Sh14 million given as a grant. Instead the money goes through a department in the Ministry of Health.

“Inaugural board was not in control of the allocated funds as they were channelled through a department within the ministry,” reads the July 25, 2019 report.

The board being referred to was put in place in May this year through a gazette notice by Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki.

The late Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Bob Collymore was among those appointed to the board. Collymore died on July 1, 2019 after a long battle with Acute Myeloid Leukemia, a form of blood cancer.

The NCI was formed three years ago, through an Act of parliament - the Cancer Control Act. However, since its formation, the institute is yet to be allocated any staff.

As detailed in the report, the institute has been operating with one staff-the Acting Chief Executive Officer Dr Alfred Karagu-for close to three years before others were added.

The institute is yet to be allocated premises and or vehicles.

“Available funds are not able to mount any nation-wide awareness or screening programs, recruit staff for the institute, fund research, support proper data collection efforts etc.,” reads the report.

According to the report, the institute now has six technical staff and two support staff yet the proposed staff establishment is 100.

Its structure is made up of 10 departments namely: regulation and Compliance, cancer prevention and care, monitoring, evaluation and research, corporate services, coordination and partnership, policy, strategy and planning, supply chain management unit, corporate secretary and legal services unit, internal audit unit and the corporate communication unit.

Before this report was presented, National Assembly Health Committee chair Murang’a Women Representative had criticised the institute for not showing any sign that they have been working to combat cancer.

She went ahead to summon the institute to appear before the committee which it did on July 25 and tabled this report.

The institute argued in the report that despite being incapacitated, it has been able to decentralize cancer treatment to county referral hospitals through establishment of chemotherapy unit and developed a priority chemotherapy drug list that informed bulk of procurement of cancer drugs by the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority.

Other achievements include development of policy documents to focus on early detection, and a curriculum to train health workers on the same.

The institute has also been able to establish partnerships with American Cancer Society, US’ NCI and Getrude Hospital to complement government’s efforts on prevention of cancer.

Cancer is the third leading killer disease in the country and claims 32,987 lives annually as per the 2018 Globocan report.

There are also 47,887 new cases reported every year.