Architect Mumo Musuva, the vice-chairperson of the Nairobi Rivers Commission, on April 17, 2025. Photo/ Leah Mukangai.The Nairobi River once teemed with life. But it is today the dirtiest waterway in Kenya, with nearly half its volume made up of raw sewage and industrial effluent. It is linked to disease outbreaks and deaths in the city and downstream. Various efforts to clean the river since 1999 all ended in failure. But in March, President William Ruto unveiled the biggest attempt yet: a plan to not only clean the river but also transform its banks into a green corridor of parks, walkways, markets, and social housing. Nairobi Rivers Commission vice chairperson ARCHITECT MUMO MUSUVA spoke to the Star’s…
Author: by JOHN MUCHANGI
A radiographer looks at an image of a patient with suspected oesophageal cancer. Researchers and clinicians are racing to explain why EC cancer is growing in northeastern Kenya.Yuusuf, a 42-year-old shopkeeper in Wajir town, recalls the first sign something was wrong: a persistent difficulty in swallowing.What he didn’t know then was that he, like a growing number of ethnic Somali Kenyans, was on the long, painful road of battling cancer of the oesophagus, the tube that runs from the throat to the stomach.Last year, Dr Omar Abdihamid, a clinical oncologist and cancer researcher at Garissa Cancer Center, led a study…
Kenya previously used to control rabies simply by poisoning stray dogs using strychnine, a highly toxic chemical.Kenya’s plan to eliminate human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030 is facing setbacks, with new research showing that vaccination coverage in one critical county is far below the critical threshold.The dog population is also increasing rapidly and is currently double the official estimates.In Machakos County, a focal area in the national rabies elimination strategy, only about 40 percent of dogs have been vaccinated against rabies – far short of the 70 percent coverage recommended by the World Health Organization to interrupt transmission.The findings,…
Dr Caroline Tonio is one of the youngest oncologists in Kenya.The median age of oncologists (doctors who specialise in cancer) in Africa, including those in Kenya, was 51 years in 2019 according to study on cancercare workforce in Africa. They were also more likely to be male. The situation gets more troubling for Kenya, where about 44,000 people are newly diagnosed with cancer every year. The National Cancer Institute says Kenya had only 60 oncologists serving 54 million Kenyans in 2022.But there are new kids on the block to replace the ageing practitioners. CAROLINE TONIO, 35, is one of the youngest…
HIV infections in babies can be eliminated if pregnant women are tested for HIV and those living with the virus receive treatment, and their babies are put on drugs right after birth.A large number of women are not being tested for HIV during pregnancy, which partly contributes to the high number of babies born with the virus, data shows.Joab Khasewa, an officer with the National Syndemic Diseases Control Council (NSDCC), explained that in 2023, about 200,000 pregnant women were not tested for HIV because they did not attend antenatal clinics and gave birth at home, while others attended clinics but declined to be…
Prep comes as a pill taken daily. It reduces the risk of getting HIV from sex by about 99 per cent when taken as prescribed. The first time Fatuma took HIV prevention pills, she had constant diarrhoea. She also experienced heavy menstrual flow.“So I stopped,” she says.She is a sex worker in Mombasa and uses money from her trade to finance her degree at the Technical University of Mombasa, and take care of her nine-year-old daughter.“From that time, I started insisting on my clients to use condoms,” she says. But not all complied. Some of paid more and had condomless sex.Female sex workers…
Mediheal Hospital lawyer Conrad Maloba with his team, during the media briefing in Nairobi on April 22, 2025.Some of the Kenyans allegedly paid for their kidneys have volunteered to appear before the two teams probing Mediheal Hospital, lawyers for the hospital said.Conrad Maloba, the lead lawyer for the hospital, said the donors are ready to “confirm” they were not paid to give their kidneys.Selling a body organ in Kenya is strictly prohibited under the Health Act. The only exception is reimbursement for reasonable costs incurred, such as transport and medical expenses.Maloba said they are also ready to open patient files…