Nurturing Traditional Medicine and Healthcare Amongst Kalenjin Community in Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to unravel the strategies that may be utilised to nurture traditional medicine and healthcare amongst the Kalenjin community in Kenya. This was achieved through the following specific research objectives: to examine the traditional medicine and healthcare knowledge sharing strategies employed by the Kalenjin community; to examine the challenges associated with traditional medicine knowledge-sharing amongst the Kalenjin community; and finally, to establish the recommended interventions that seek to promote Kalenjin traditional medicine and healthcare knowledge sharing. The study employed a descriptive research approach, using snowball sampling to conduct interviews with traditional medical practitioners. The findings reveal that some of the strategies utilised to share knowledge on traditional medicine amongst the Kalenjin community include oral tradition, apprenticeship strategy and mentorship to the interested persons, family knowledge transfer, traditional medicine practitioners’ engagement and community-based participatory research. The challenges facing traditional medicine and healthcare knowledge sharing amongst the Kalenjin community include changing sociocultural dynamics and modernisation, unwillingness to share the knowledge, limited availability and access to sources of traditional medicine, dishonesty practitioners, insufficient resources, funding, and dedicated institutions for traditional medicine education, lack of intellectual property rights, among others. The findings of this study may inform policy and practice in the area of traditional medicine in developing countries. This study presents original findings that are of value to academicians and practitioners in the field of Information and Knowledge Management