Dr Maina Mwea is a UK-trained pharmacist who rose to become the Chief Pharmacist at the Kenyatta National Hospital.
But the 68-year-old had to sacrifice three goats to be crowed a medicine man after “discovering the secret in herbs” when his wife started suffering from persistent migraines.
Mwea studied pharmacy in Britain between 1972 and 1976 through a government scholarship. But shortly after completing his studies, “while working at the hospital (in Britain) my wife was attacked by stubborn migraines around 1977, and being a senior pharmacist I did all I could and administered the best medicine available, but the migraines just wouldn’t go away.”
Mwea was born and partly bred in Nyeri County. A visit to the village changed everything after chatting with his aunt about his wife’s condition. And aunty had a solution, one that actually worked. “At some point, my aunt said my wife would die if I was not keen and she advised that I take her to one of the medicine men in Karatina, where she was a frequent client. I was interested in herbs because I had studied pharmacognosy, which has a lot to do with herbs.
My wife was initially hesitant but later agreed half-heartedly to visit the recommended medicine man,” Mwea reveals. His wife returned from Karatina with three large bottles of concoctions that she took for two weeks and the migraines began subsiding.
“I was shocked too and when I shared my experience with fellow senior doctors, they were amazed,” says Mwea, adding that when he visited the medicine man in Karatina with some cash to express his gratitude, the man declined to take the money because the cash would ‘weaken’ his medicine.
Instead, the herbalist requested a goat. On the day he took the goat, Mwea asked the medicine man for herbal training which, he laughed off. “He asked for four goats; red, black, blue and one with all the three colours. The demand shocked me, but he directed me to a goat market in Mwingi”.
With the goats delivered, weekend classes started with medicinal plants and the diseases they cured. “I also went the extra mile to learn the scientific names of the plants and did tests at the University of Nairobi,” says Mwea, who 20 years on has since cut a niche for himself in herbal medicine. He reveals that medical doctors sometimes refer patients to his herbal clinic.
“Herbal medicine is a continuous learning process I have extended my research on some medicinal herbs in India and even Britain, among other countries,” he says during the interview at his Hurlingham office from where he treats fibroids, diabetes, high blood pressure, tuberculosis, as well as infectious and non-infectious diseases with roots, leaves and barks from various parts of the country.
“A common problem is erectile dysfunction in men. But I have a remedy for that in the form of liquid medicine called Thunder Balls, which go for Sh900. That problem comes in three stages - failure to erect, inability to sustain an erection and for some, infertility,” he explains.
“For women with low libido or who have never experienced orgasm, the doctor has a remedy known as Dzire, which also costs Sh900.
Mwea also treats arthritis, cough for children, memory activation, sexually transmitted infections, as well as providing medication for weight loss. The cost for these ailments range from Sh800 to 15,000.
He says that, “The only challenge is that people are yet to understand that herbs really work. That’s why some people claim herbalist go for some herbs at night while naked. That’s not true, it’s only that some plants are medicinal at night.”
