Group roots for policy to protect natural products

A validation and public participation draft policy on Natural Products Industry (NPI) was held on Friday at National Museums of Kenya to seek stakeholder input and public participation.

Participants drawn from Central Kenya, Lower Eastern, Nairobi and Kajiado counties gathered in Nairobi to create a functional interface between Indigenous Knowledge (IK) and natural resources on one hand and the best of science technology and business expertise on the other hand under an enabling policy, legal and institutional framework.

“For long, this NPI sub-sector has been existing in informal realm of the economy and therefore the workshop did this to mainstream what was hitherto an informal sub-sector into formal economy,” said Evans Taracha, Coordinator of Natural Products industry initiative.

Speaking during the workshop, Dr Ambaka Mwenda, a lecturer from Chuka University said there is need for an-all-inclusive framework.

Dr Mary Wangai from Ministry of Health alsos emphasised the need for NPI policy.

She stated that such a policy would help create necessary framework for developing legislation, regulation and promotion of the practice of alternative and complimentary medicine.